Remnants
by General Rage
Summary: From Halo's ashes, a mismatched Alliance is born. UNSC soldiers now serve alongside both Batarian deserters and shifty Jackal Space Pirates. Now Shepard and Master Chief have to keep these strange bedfellows from killing one another before they can stop an emergent new threat to the galaxy. The Next Swashbuckling Chapter of the Wormhole Chronicles.
1. Prologue

**Remnants**

 **Prologue**

 _A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for._

 _-John A. Sneed, "Salt from my Attic", 1928_

The camp laid spread out before her, a bit larger than she had expected. The Covenant had certainly settled into this place fairly well. The living quarters alone occupied a quarter of the general excavation site. It would be incredibly stupid to try and sneak through it to her target. Luckily, that wasn't going to be an issue. They were expecting a potential infiltration or attack from the front and expected the cliffs at the back to keep them safe on that end. She, however, had managed to get along their flank. It had taken hours of trekking just to get here and a lot of climbing up these old ruins. Now though, she had the perfect way in.

She could see her final destination now, looming just a short ways in the distance. The ancient temple stretched up to the sky, a magnificent monument to the Forerunner race. A civilization that once spanned the entire galaxy, their technology and power unmatched by anyone. Now they were gone and thought of as Gods by those left behind. She didn't really take much stock in that, few Kig-Yar did. What she did take stock in was that their precious abandoned structures housed things that were always worth something. This particular temple, according to what she had been told, was worth a lot. It better be, considering the risk she was taking here.

She leaped towards the next ledge, a small outcropping old ruined tower on the perimeter of the temple. She rolled across the roof, stood up and kept running. The next ledge, she threw herself off and grabbed onto a mess of vines growing out of the old structure. She climbed up the side, pulling herself onto the roof. Next came a large old tree that had seemingly grown into the old building. Some Forerunner structures were built to last, but in her experience they were rarely immune to nature. Something always poked through the outward shiny and clean exterior. If it wasn't rock forming over it, it was the desert swallowing half of it. Today it was an overgrown jungle of sorts, classic lost city vibe like from the old stories.

She slid down the mossy trunk, trying to keep her hood over her beak and face. When you were doing work like this it was best not to be easily recognizable. The Covenant didn't take kindly to people stealing from the tombs of their Gods. As far as she was concerned, if they didn't want them stolen they'd learn to get better at excavating them instead of constantly worrying about offending their precious deities. Superstition had no place in this line of work, they needed to learn that. Or not, again she didn't care.

Now up close and personal, she looked up at the massive temple, its gleaming blue beam pulsing into the sky. One thing was for sure, the Forerunners did have a way of leaving you in awe. However, their architecture was no less predictable at this point. Unlike the Covenant, she bothered to actually learn a little about these old ruins and she knew, as anyone worth a damn did, that the Gods had certain predictable patterns to the way they built these things. Being a kig-yar gave her a bit of a spring in her step, useful for traversing places like this. The overgrown vines provided additional support as she scrambled her way up a few feet towards a small platform.

As she crawled onto it, she heard something and quickly hid behind a small wall. Peek out she saw a group of fellow kig-yar patrolling the pathway with some unggoy by their side. Ugly little methane suckers and their sell-out handlers, that's all they were. So long as she didn't run into a sangheili she'd be okay. They were the real threat here.

When they passed by, she quickly sneaked out towards a small circular pattern along the wall. She ran her hand along it, finding the crease easily enough. Whatever power source these old ruins used to stay running long after their masters had vanished, it had once needed maintenance ducts at some point. She looked around and found the control box nearby. A few seconds of messing with them her hatch opened with a fairly satisfying sound. She had her way inside, now things were about to get a little more tricky.

Navigating the inside of the maintenance shaft was relatively hazardous. Small moving parts that could take off a leg if you got caught in them, plasma conduits spewing out exhaust, it would be easier to get through these places if the Forerunners hadn't built to last. Luckily this wasn't one of the more complicated structures that had seemingly bottomless pits appearing out of nowhere. Those were always a pain to skirt around. Why the Forerunners built so deep she would never know.

Truthfully a few still belching exhaust ports were the least of her concerns. It all came down to timing and she was good with that. Just memorize the pattern for a few brief second and make a move. One, two, three, roll, exhaust blow off behind her, one, two, three, duck, exhaust harmlessly shoots over her head. One last dive and the worst she feels is a little singing on the sole of her foot. A bit late, but nothing to worry about. She wouldn't be stuck with another impromptu puzzle like that again anyway, as soon as she found a hatch out of the tunnel she forced it open and leapt down from the shaft.

Her real concern, as always when it came to these jobs, was the Covenant and how far they had gotten through the temple. Sometimes she got lucky and she made it there before them. This time, no such luck, they had been pretty deeply entrenched here for awhile and they had quite the garrison inside to match their camp outside. Always a problem when clients got their info late. She always explained that would make things difficult, but they didn't care. It wasn't their life on the line after all.

Here was no different, worse yet stalking the halls were groups of sangheili and their little gas sucking slaves. Unlike most kig-yar, she kinda pitied the ugly spuds, but only in so far that they had no choice. At least her people had more opportunities, being a bit more spread out and their homeworld not being a shithole. One of the sangheili forced a lolly-gagging unggoy to keep pace, forcing them to continue down the corridor. Once they were gone, she jumped down from the platform above and landed in the hallway. With any luck, she'd be able to avoid any more patrols in a similar manner.

Sticking to the shadows, she made her way to the central chamber where her target was. She kept out of sight of the patrols best she could, trying not to get spotted. She could kill them yes, but then she'd have to waste time hiding a body and there was always the risk one would raise an alarm before she killed him. Better to keep out of sight and wait for them to pass rather than take the chance. Patience was the key to this job.

She kept herself tucked in behind a small pillar as one group made their way through the corridor. One sangheili, two unggoys. She'd have to wait a bit longer on account of the eight foot blowhard. Sangheili were just naturally alert when on the clock, very few people could sneak up on or past them. You had to be really careful when moving with them around.

As she was peeking to make sure they were turning the corner, one of the unggoy turned. She quickly pulled back as the little idiot eyed her pillar curiously. He probably saw her beak out of the corner of his eye. He made a tepid step towards her, but was quickly called back into the patrol. Sangheili never cared for those stepping out of line. When the unggoy tried to argue something back but his overlord forced the point and grabbed him by the collar, throwing him forward and back onto the patrol. When the bickering and angry shouting vanished, she made a quiet run out to the next series of shadows. Lucky her, sangheili rarely listened to the people beneath them.

Before long, she found her final destination. As usual, big door in the way because of course there is. So long as her employer's information was solid the prize was still inside waiting to be claimed. She hoped it was at least, that the Covenant hadn't found a way past the security within in the time it took to get here. Otherwise this whole trip would've been a waste. Although the more immediate problem was a lot smaller. Unggoy were standing watch, their eyes scanning the corridor for threats. No sangheili, they probably didn't think any intruders could get this far so why bother standing there all night? They had better things to do.

She could handle one unggoy without making much noise, but this was two. The second one dropped dead the other one was going to start screaming like mad and then she'd have a whole set of new problems. She had to lead them away from the door. Only one way to do that and give herself enough time to get what she needed done.

Pulling out a small communication device she tuned it to the standard frequency of the Covenant channels. Her mind centered on a possible location, keeping in mind where she was at the moment. Then she spoke into the device.

"Attention Central Chamber sentries," she said in her best gruff voice. "Report to the secondary Celestial Chamber, immediately."

The good thing about unggoy, they didn't question much. This would be a lot harder if it was one of her kind or sangheili. She didn't even want to think about how difficult the walking worm colonies would be, they were horrifically stubborn and not nearly as stupid as they looked. Unggoy though, they obeyed because they dared not risk the consequences. So when they took off waddling, it was no surprise. Now she could get to work.

She slinked over to the door and checked around the edge. The Covenant had locked it back up, but she could get around that. She had worked up enough experience with Forerunner tech that she had quickly learned how to overcome their ancient security. One connection to the electronic lock component, a simple tap of the central button and before long the doors lurched open.

She squeezed her way inside and found herself in a large circular room. There old terminals all around, still functioning with three-dimensional displays and readouts. She could only imagine the larger metallic squares were old servers. As for the center of the room, there was a pyramid shaped fluorescent orange object hovering in the middle of a large blue beam. As she suspected, this wasn't a straightforward place of worship as the Covenant always tended to believe. It was some kind of larger planetary facility, for what purpose she didn't know. What she did know, was she was looking at data module of some kind. Her employer was paying good credits for this particular one and now it was within her grasp.

Carefully she stepped up to the floating miniature pyramid, but hesitated to grab it. No, it was never this simple. She brought out another piece of equipment, a small charge and placed it close to the beam. She pressed it and it let out a small burst of energy. The beam was disrupted for a brief moment and she quickly grabbed for the pyramid before it fell to the floor. The beam turned on moments after and kept functioning as normal. She held up her prize and grinned before placing it securely in her satchel.

She smiled all the way back to the door. Easy money, she thought. She'd get out the way she came, get back to her ship and be out of here before the these stupid zealots knew their precious bauble was missing. At least, that was the plan. When she tried to leave the room, however, a terrible deafening sound rung in her ears. Clutching the sides of her head as the klaxon wailed she mentally kicked herself. Secondary security, designed to make sure nothing left the room without authorization. Damn those Forerunner assholes and their stupid little ancient tricks!

She made a run around the corner, trying to put as much distance between her and the room as possible. She made it about a few feet and then three unggoy came into the open. They were surprised to see her running at them at first, not sure what to make of her. She settled the question for them, firing a few shots at the unggoy with her needler. The shots sliced into their little gas sucking brains before they could properly react. She knew they weren't the real threat though, she could tell by the shadow. Sangheili, always letting someone take the first few shots for them.

She tucked into a roll as she came around the bend, blue plasma bolts slicing into the ground close to her. When she turned upright, she let loose what was left in her needler into the self-important alien warrior. You couldn't risk half-measure with them, you either unloaded everything or you died. The sangheili tried to react, but the pink swarm enveloped him. The bastard exploded in a cloud while she rushed by him.

Another bigger patrol was coming down the corridor, she couldn't fight them, she needed to get away. She tossed a plasma grenade into the crowd, more as a distraction than anything. As they all jumped to get away from the explosion, she jumped onto a Covenant terminal set up nearby. Using that, she jumped onto the upper platform above her. It spanned the length of the hallway, leading all the way back to her exit point. The Covenant below, who had survived the grenade's explosion, fired on her as she ran. She fired back, but doubted any of her shots hit. She was barely even looking at them anyway, as she was too focused on moving forward and staying one step ahead of the plasma bolts.

When she got back to the ventilation hatch, she forced it open and started scrambling inside. She made her way back up through the annoying bits of moving tech and exhaust ports. She had to move as carefully as ever, but now the Covenant knew she was trying to escape. What was supposed to be a clean getaway was now complicated by the fact the whole damn camp knew she was here! They'd be swarming the outside, patrols would be everywhere.

Sure enough, when she emerged outside, she saw a single unggoy below her and then heard a barrage of plasma fire fly past her. Two sangheili, blasting at her as they charged. Another fight she couldn't win. Only one way out. She jumped down towards the unggoy on the ground, bringing the closest thing she had to a melee weapon to bear. As she neared the gas sucker's head she plunged her climbing axe tool into his eye. Yanking the weapon back out, she quickly picked herself up off the corpse and made a dash towards the back of the temple. She could already hear other patrols chasing after her.

Plasma fire of both green and blue variety chased after as she moved through the brush, jumped over logs, ducked under vines, hoping maybe she'd lose them. She did not, the cliffs showed up sooner than she thought. She nearly ended up falling clear over the side. When she righted herself, she heard the distinct noise of plasma weapons powering up.

"Nowhere left to run thief."

She turned and saw a plethora of Covenant soldiers staring her down, one sangheili officer keep his eyes and weapon trained on her. Being the guy in the middle, she imagined he was the head asshole in charge of this hunt. How wonderful, she thought, he was giving her the chance to grovel.

"Your defilement was greatly ill advised," he declared. "Return what you have stolen and surrender, now."

"Why?" She asked, her hands raised. "So you can throw me in a cell, torture me for the next couple of weeks and then kill me? Not exactly much of an offer."

"We don't negotiate with heretics," the sangheili assured her.

"Yeah, I know, you glass'em," she huffed, moving back slightly to the edge. "You're horrendously predictable like that."

The sangheili already seemed tired of the conversation.

"We are the rightful owners of that artifact, it is the inheritance of our Gods, it will be returned," he reiterated. "I will count to three."

"Wow, all the way up to three?" She mockingly laughed. "That's impressive for you guys, I must say."

There was no countdown actually. The sangheili started shooting without even saying a single syllable of a number. As he did though, she fell backwards, letting the bolt sail over her. She fell off the edge of the cliff and started tumbling down to the cavernous abyss below. In mid-fall though, she righted herself, pulled out her climbing axes and plunged them into the side of the rock. The tools dug into the rock, the pikes holding despite slicing through the rock. Dust and debris kicked up as she slid down and she gritted her teeth in pain as she tried to keep her grip. Her feet grasped the side of the rock, trying to slow her down further, she could feel a burning sensation through her climbing boots all the way down. Then, at long last, she stopped falling.

She pressed herself into the rock, still gripping her axes tightly. Breathing heavily, she looked up and saw she had fallen quite a ways. She looked down, trying not to focus on the still miles long drop, and eventually spotted the cavern. Good, for a second there she was worried she fell too far. The Covenant had probably already decided she was dead and even if not there wasn't much they could do about it now. She started moving towards the cavern, just a little ways down and to the right of her.

As she swung herself into the open mouth of the cliffside cave she took a breather at last. She was more or less clear, at least of any immediate danger for the moment. Still had a long walk back though, wasn't looking forward to that. She started moving through the dark, knowing she was only going to feel even more tired by the time she got back to her ship.

It had taken a day to scout the site and find a suitable entry point. It took hours just to make her way through the damn cave. At least one good thing had come out of being spotted early, it meant she had an excuse to rush back here and shave off a little of the return trip time. Not that it mattered, she was still pissed at everything.

Hours later, scurrying and climbing through the dingy cavern, she emerged miles away from the temple. She then rushed back to her ship, set down in a small clearing about another few kilometers away. She trudged back into the tiny vessel's quarters and slumped down in the pilots chair in a heap. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt like she had been swimming a marathon against razorfins for a week. She barely wanted to move, she just wanted to rest.

"Taq," she asked herself aloud. "How the hell did you get here?"

A question she had asked herself more and more frequently these days. Before, it had been easier to raid tombs and hunt for treasure. The Covenant were distracted with a stupid crusade and snatching up trinkets was easy pickings. In the last few years though, that had changed. They had gotten better at finding these old ruins. They had gotten better at excavating. They had gotten better at pretty much everything and she could barely keep up. The black market still paid plenty, but it was getting harder to find solid decent work. Freelance Treasure Hunting just wasn't as lucrative anymore, or as safe.

So, she sold out her service to others. She took up clients, people who wanted Forerunner junk for themselves. Mostly criminals of course, people who wanted artifacts to sell or use or whatever. As a result, she never got as much as she was used to and she was always one someone else's clock.

She couldn't search for the things she wanted anymore, couldn't pick and choose the places she went to. Her client would want something and she'd have to get it, no matter the cost. The risk hadn't gone down all that much, but the real trade off was having someone else do the research for her. Not to mention they gave her the necessary equipment to keep up with the Covenant. Equipment and resources she would not have otherwise because she wasn't earning enough money by herself to get them.

Now, Taq found herself being worked to the bone as a personal tomb raider for some damn old bastard who seemed to have a thing for Forerunner tech. Almost as much of a thing as the Covenant in fact. As far as she knew, he wasn't a believer either, but he paid her the cash so she could at least eat and keep her ship fueled. He never gave her enough though, never what she actually deserved. Just enough to keep her complacent and in his employ. She was the best at extracting this stuff after all and who else would pay her more? He was the only kig-yar who was legitimately interested in Forerunners, or least their stuff. His contracts were the most frequent and therefore he was the only real game in town.

Taq wanted nothing more than to just tell him where to stick it, but she didn't have a choice. Where else would she find work? Who else would let her keep doing what she loved? Who else had the ability to keep her off the Covenant's watch list? Part of her hoped either the Covenant would put more people back into their war effort or those humans would somehow miraculously defeat them. The latter was unlikely though. Unless something change, she was stuck working for the Old Man and his minimum wage paycheck.

She pulled out the artifact she had nearly died to get him today. Taq looked over the little glowing pyramid inquisitively, her eyes scanning the little object incessantly. All this trouble for something small. Taq imagined something important was on this thing. No, she knew something was important because her employer insisted she not look at the data contained within. She grumbled a bit, remembering the order. Until now, Taq had played the good girl, always obeying the contract and the guy who paid her. She listened and followed his rules and instruction, no matter how strange. She never questioned, not once.

But after a few years of being under someone else's thumb, after being cheated out of credits that she deserved, after being thrown into these increasingly dangerous situations with little regard, well, she stopped caring. Taq decided to open the stupid thing and see what was so worth almost getting killed over.

It wasn't hard to figure out what to do to open it, you just had to find the activation mechanism. Pressing against the top of the pyramid had it open wide. The four sides of the object dropped down as a small cylinder in within spun around. Slowly it descended into the base of the pyramid. Then, suddenly, a small holographic map appeared. The image was a bit distorted, corrupted no doubt by the countless years of neglect. However, she could make out a few familiar systems and the relevant information pertaining to the image itself. Not many kig-yar bothered to learn Forerunner, but in Taq's line of work it was a requirement. She had gotten pretty decent at it, although admittedly she could be better.

She understood enough though to realize what this holomap was telling her. Suddenly, everything made sense. Why her employer was so eager to get his hands on this, why he had pushed the issue as urgent and why he didn't want her looking inside. Taq didn't blame him too much she supposed, if this was true then it meant something huge. Namely, the biggest payday any would-be treasure hunter could ever ask for. It would be worth enough credits to ensure she never had to do grunt work for anyone ever again.

She had no doubt the Old Man had no intention of asking her to go on this job, he knew that if she found out what this was about that she'd probably take it and sell it for herself. Again, she couldn't blame him if he thought that way mainly because he was right. Thing is, now she did know and as soon as he found out, well, her life was forfeit anyway. He couldn't risk the competition, not with this.

Problem was, going after it would be difficult. She didn't have the resources, equipment or even a big enough team to properly pull this kind of expedition off. This wasn't some temple or ruin, this was something else. This was top priority stuff, the damn information on the holomap pretty much spelled it out. This was big, potentially even bigger for all she knew. Doing some quick calculations in her head, she figured she had at least enough credits to get a few people together, bare minimum supplies at least. Question was where would she find everything she needed?

Well, really only one place and given her intentions it was a bit risky to go there. She supposed she could just forget she saw anything and complete the job as ordered. Just get the money you were offered and walk. Then again fuck that. She was kig-yar, they didn't walk away from profit that easy. She'd take the risk, head to into the razorfin feeding ground so to speak, risk the big fish catching her and get out with what she needed before he could do so. If this paid off, she'd never have to worry about making ends meet again. If it didn't, well, she'd be dead and the same would apply. Win-win from a certain point of view.

"Alright," she declared aloud, closing the pyramid back up and pocketing the device. "Mind made up."

Sitting back upright in her chair, she activated the engines, lifted off from the ground, raised landing gear and closed all hatches.

"Setting course for the Hollow," she said next as she activated navigation. "And hoping it doesn't get me killed."

The small ship took off into the sky, leaving the old Forerunner world behind. Taq knew this was probably a bad call. But since when was anything worth doing not potentially dangerous? She just had no real idea how much trouble she was about to get into.

* * *

AN: We're back people! It's so good to return to this story after a nice long break. I know it took awhile, mainly because I was writing a bunch of chapters in advance, still technically am, but decided to upload this one while I finish up chapter five. Check the profile for more details about this chapter, my thoughts on returning and do leave a review or two. Expect the first official chapter within the next few days. This is just to let you all know that the story is going to continue and I'm not dead. Thanks again for your continued support.


	2. Aftermath

**Chapter One: Aftermath**

 _Forgive your Enemies, but Never Forget their Names_

 _-President John F. Kennedy_

Colonel Holland ran his hand over the casket, re-purposed from an old stasis pod the _Normandy_ had been kind enough to supply them. Inside was a single Marine Helmet, a standard issue rifle and a folded UNSC Flag. It wasn't much, but it was all they had. He took a brief sigh, letting his despair wash out before looking to the assembled crowd within the Corvette's main hangar. He hadn't expect so many to turn out, given all the work there was still left to do. He supposed he should've known better, good soldiers always make time to remember the fallen even in the most dire times. All the more reason to not waste too much time here. He wasn't the best at speeches, but these men and women wanted to pay their respects and he wasn't about to disappoint them in that regard.

"When we escaped Reach together, there were more than three thousand souls with us from our combined forces," he began solemnly. "I thank Captain Keyes especially for letting my Troopers follow you brave Marines into the unknown. Now, we are less than a few hundred survivors."

It was blunt, but true. Holland knew he couldn't sugar coat their situation here. They were inside a hijacked Covenant Corvette, towing another Corvette full of pirates and former enemies. They were in the middle of nowhere limping back to human space. Suffice to say, this was not an optimal situation. They needed to remember their situation. This was a ceremony to grieve, yes, but that did not mean it gave anyone a reason to forget why they were here to begin with. What those who had died had done so for. He had to give their survival meaning.

"The sacrifices of these heroes is one not to be taken lightly," he informed the crowd proudly. "Their efforts are the very reason we have survived despite the odds against us. Their deaths are not without meaning. We should honor their sacrifices, but not mourn them. Through their actions we dealt a significant blow to the Covenant, ended a nightmarish new enemy, and destroyed a deadly weapon that endangered all life in the galaxy. We should all be proud to have served alongside them and been a part of their legacy."

He looked around to the crowd, looking for one face in particular. He noticed soon after that the ODSTs were all off to the side, separated from the other assembled soldiers. Both Marines and Troopers, despite being from different branches, were all huddled among each other in solidarity. The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, however, looked singled out. He supposed he knew the reason why, given what had happened. Major Silva, the leader of the ODSTs, had committed mutiny. He defied Holland's orders and turned on his fellow soldiers. His actions put them all at risk and it was a wound that hadn't healed much at all it seemed.

Holland couldn't have that, they had enough to worry about as it was, given their new allies over in the other ship they were towing. If group cohesion fractured they'd be in real trouble.

"We will never forget the bravery of these fine men and women," Holland continued, still speaking with pride. "Soldiers of the UNSC that gave their all for humanity. Heroes, like Lieutenant Carol Rawley, Sergeant Alec Taylor, Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto, Major Antonio Silva and Captain Jacob Keyes. They all gave their lives in service of Earth and her Colonies."

He supposed mentioning Silva would be controversial, but he didn't care. According to Spartans 058 and Noble Two, despite his actions he had made up for them in the end. He prevented the Flood from acquiring their own escape ship, dying in the process. He trusted their word. Showing that he had no ill will towards their fallen leader would help prove to the ODSTs that he was not their enemy. It would also send a message to the others not to treat their fellow soldiers like traitors. They needed to move past that, especially considering they were entrusting their lives to far older enemies turned allies.

He finally found the one face in the crowd he had been searching for. Lieutenant Melissa McKay, the second in command of the late Antonio Silva. She had turned against her CO when he mutined, but he could tell it had pained her to do so. A man she admired had betrayed his principles and she played a part in his downfall. He could still see the sense of self-loathing on her face. She was now in command of the ODSTs that were left, made of those who had joined Silva's mutiny and those who had not. He couldn't imagine how much pressure was now being placed upon her shoulders. The next few days and weeks would test her resolve. He hoped she was up to the challenge and that they'd be able to assist her should she need them.

Then again, they were all going to be challenged in the days ahead. No one soldier's burden could be placed higher than anyone else's. They all shared the dangers to come equally now.

"What we must do now, is press on with them in mind and not let their sacrifice be in vain," he decreed. "Their struggle is over, ours is not. We find ourselves in probably the most difficult position possible. We are UNSC soldiers, stranded who knows how many lightyears from home. We have had to make alliances that some of us may still find questionable. And until we can be certain this ship is clean of any and all potential tracking devices, we cannot risk going to Earth. Yet, we must return to UNSC space to warn humanity of a potential threat that possibly outweighs the Covenant. We must not falter in this mission, too much is at stake. Not just the UNSC or the Galaxy, but the memory of these brave heroes who gave their lives so that we may have the chance to tell their story to all mankind. So that what happened on Halo, will never be forgotten."

That seemed to strike a chord with everyone, especially McKay. He saw some of the anguish leave her face, replaced with resolve. He smiled lightly at that, but only for a moment before his face became more stern. He respectfully turned to the makeshift coffin and saluted.

"Your courage will be an example for us to strive to," he declared. "Your memory will never be forgotten as long as we yet live. As long as all mankind yet live. We will press on, we will survive and we will remember that we are part of your legacy."

The assembled soldiers saluted in kind and a group of Marines and Troopers took the casket and rolled it towards the edge of the ship. They let it pass through the barrier and float out into the vast black void beyond. Sergeant Avery Johnson yelled to a detail of rifleman to present arms and they fired after the casket into the black. Holland watched the little coffin float into the distance and out of sight. Slowly but surely the others all left the hangar, dismissed from the ceremony. He remained however.

When he left Reach, he had shared command with Jacob Keyes. He had had little time to get to know him before his death, but he quickly grew to respect him as a fellow officer. His loss was a terrible one for the UNSC. Too many good men had already died in this war.

Now, however, he was sharing command of a loose confederation. An alliance born of circumstance. On one side there were his Troopers and the remaining Marines. On the other, a bunch of Jackal Pirates and their cunning shipmaster who seemed less than reputable. Alongside him was another alien from another dimension, called Varvok. His race, the batarians, apparently had their own grudge with humanity, making him potentially more dangerous. For all his clearly questionable attributes, it was clear that the Jackal leader Zek had no personal issues concerning humans. Varvok though was a different story.

The one solace Holland had was that on his side, and sadly probably in the middle of everything, was Command Shepard. The de-facto Captain of the _Normandy_ , he had arranged this alliance. Through it, they had escaped Halo with more men than they could've hoped for. Better still, they had done it with a ship that wasn't infested with a dangerous infectious organism called the Flood. He owed a lot to Shepard for that, and he supposed Zek and Varvok, who had made the offer of the alliance in the first place. It still wouldn't have happened without Shepard's reputation though, that could not be understated.

This did not make this alliance any less shaky though. He had already heard of the scuttlebutt among the crew, still questioning if working with Covenant Deserters was a good idea. Yes, they had betrayed their former leaders and chosen to side with them, but it was a marriage of convenience. It was why they were towing the Jackals' ship, the _Fallen Serpent_. It had been damaged, they couldn't escape Halo under their own power. They had needed UNSC assistance to steal this Corvette. It was a partnership born out of a shared need for survival, not because they suddenly liked each other.

However, Zek and Varvok had helped the Master Chief destroy Halo, ending the threat the ancient ring world posed. Had the installation been fired, all life in the galaxy would've been destroyed. In a way, they were as much a part of that victory as the soldiers he had just paid tribute to. He couldn't deny how complicated this situation was in any respect and he wondered just what the future now held for them. Stranded countless miles from home with former enemies at their back and current enemies no doubt hunting them even now. Not the kind of command that he appreciated owning, but it was his and he'd have to bear it. If there was a small comfort, knowing Shepard's position in all this, he wouldn't have to bear all the burden alone.

* * *

Despite the still ongoing after party, work was going steady. Not nearly as fast Retz would've preferred it, but at the very least they were getting done. Stealing what remained of the demolished Covenant vessels in the area before leaving the system and it's exploded ring world behind had given them more than enough raw material to repair parts of their ship. That much could be appreciated.

Zek, however had other things on his mind as the two walked through the corridors of the _Fallen Serpent_. He had already commissioned a few of the crewman commit to a task that was, in Retz's opinion, rather wasteful in terms of manpower. However, Zek had insisted upon it. He wanted them to paint a big green snake along the side of the ship. He had always wanted to do that, but Covenant regulations had prevented him from doing so. Now that they were free from their yoke, Zek was wasting no time in making sure everyone knew he was a true pirate again.

The men shared the sentiment, they had already started covering the walls in pin ups and posters of various Kig-Yar females, fabled sea monsters of their homeworld and anything else that they had previously hidden away. Zek wanted to go one further, as his items within his dictated to do list proved.

"And I want these walls re-painted, I don't care what color so long as it ain't purple," he demanded. "I don't want to see another spec of that color on this ship as long as I live."

"You're kind of making our supply list a bit longer than it should be," Retz informed his friend. "I don't think we need more ero-holos and a brand new speaker system for the entire ship."

"How else are we gonna blast our tunes through the halls?" Zek asked, seemingly oblivious to the matter of cost. "By the way, the new ship we snagged. What do you think of my name choices? I like Crusty Chorka myself."

"Yes, I think we should really run that by the humans, since they're going to be piloting it for awhile," Retz suggested. "I'm not sure how they'd feel about that."

"They won't mind, it's just a name," Zek insisted. "If you really think they care, go ask them. I'm sure all they'll do is just cock their heads and keep wondering what a Chorka even is."

It had been a bit of a culture shock, this sudden merging of kig-yar and humans, with a few batarians thrown in for good measure. Retz noted how, despite things not breaking down into a shooting spree afterwards the humans still gave them a few suspicious looks. It probably would've been better if they kept themselves segregated for the time being, but that was a bit hard to do in given circumstances.

Despite the lines of authority among between the _Fallen Serpent_ , _Normandy_ and the new Corvette, there were still quite a few humans aboard all three vessels in their miniature fleet. The same held true with the kig-yar, a few more of their kind than anticipated had joined their ranks and survived the fight when they took the second Corvette. It made living arrangements a little complicated, but the humans had allowed a few kig-yar to remain aboard their Corvette in exchange for letting some humans stay aboard theirs. It was only way to balance the life support systems with minimal risk.

The situation still made things a bit tense among all parties though, more so between humans and batarians especially. Varvok assured he'd keep his men from doing anything to spark a fight, but he couldn't be everywhere and his men were still a bit jumpy when they saw humans in the same hall as them. It was a bit disconcerting to see the four-eyed aliens so seemingly disgusted by just the presence of UNSC Marines sharing the same air as them.

Worse still was the case of the unggoy, a fair amount of them had surrendered to them in exchange for their service. That was mostly Retz's fault though, as when he had made the offer for the kig-yar aboard their stolen Corvette to join them, he made the same offer to the unggoy beneath them. At the time, the point was to decrease their enemies numbers, making it easier to push towards the bridge.

Retz hadn't imagined so many would take the offer and somehow survive the repercussions. His gambit had paid off just a bit too well it seemed. While he didn't care much for the little methane breathers, he was wary about breaking a promise in front of the humans. Zek was a bit wary about the whole thing, but he allowed the unggoy to stay on so long as they didn't get in the way. Also they had to serve the ichor and food like little waiters, because they had to at least be useful while aboard. Just because Retz promised they wouldn't have to fight again didn't mean they could be lazy.

There were worse problems, more dire issues if you will. Retz wanted to bring them to Zek's attention, but his friend kept going on about whatever else was on his mind. Retz was worried his friend was getting a bit drunk on freedom and it was making him forget that they weren't out of the woods yet.

"By the way, I'm thinking of getting a new chair for the bridge," Zek happily declared. "Comfier this time, rich Doarmir Leather. What do you think?"

"I think we should worry about our slipspace drive," Retz informed him bluntly. "We need a replacement and if you're going where I think you are to get one, we need something to actually buy it with. More accurately, we'd need to convince the humans to even go there."

Zek didn't seem all that worried though, simply shrugging the problem off.

"Relax, we're fine, we got plenty to trade."

That was partially true, they had quite a few things aboard this ship and the other Corvette they could try to trade for supplies. For a slipspace drive though? That was going to be difficult to acquire. They had already given a portion of their bounty over to the humans, several crates of Covenant plasma rifles. It was a gift, no charge, Zek felt a gesture of good faith would help better solidify relations between them and the humans. Retz agreed it was a good idea, but he was still cautious about thinking it changed much.

"I'm just saying with what little we have and our given reputation, it's not going to be easy to make a deal there," he cautiously informed Zek. "We've only just escaped Covenant employ, we still need to climb back up the ladder after that. And even if we're able to convince the humans to go there, convincing them to pitch in further to help us by giving up their supplies and equipment won't go over well. We need to be careful how much we ask of them."

"It's okay, Retz," Zek assured him once more. "I'm on top of this. I'm going to talk things over with Commander Shepard, smooth things out on that front first."

Retz looked at him confused. He was going to talk to Shepard? Really?

"What exactly are you going to talk to him about?" He asked.

"Just a few things about this alliance and all," Zek explained with a grin. "Getting the slipspace drive and fixing this old crate up are just the start, Retz. You're right, we need to work back up the ladder. Right now, our best real bet of doing that is to keep this relationship we got working smoothly and in our benefit."

The way he put that was a bit of a concern. Yes, keeping this alliance going for the time being was probably good idea. They were alone out here, they weren't exactly in the strongest position and the Covenant were actively hunting them. Everyone could see they were in the same boat, but not everyone had a different idea of how things would function.

Varvok had made his intentions clearest. He was here for as long as it took to get his people home. As far as he was concerned, any fight over here was subsidiary. Their real concerns were the Covenant back in his home dimension, subverting batarian culture and slowly absorbing them into their empire under the promise of helping them defeat their enemies. He wanted to get back there and stop the assimilation, but he couldn't do that on his own. The wormhole back home was guarded by a small Covenant Fleet, just leaving wasn't an option. His best bet at getting back home was with Shepard. So he was staying for the long haul, under protest in a way, but he didn't have much of a choice.

The UNSC likely believed this would last until the _Fallen Serpent_ was fixed, that much was also clear. Once the kig-yar could fly their own ship, they'd go their separate ways and hopefully never bother one another ever again. The risk of being on their own in the middle of enemy territory didn't seem to phase them that much. So long as they didn't have to share space with Covenant deserters they'd be fine. In Retz's opinion it was probably not the best decision, but it was theirs to make.

Commander Shepard was a bit of a mystery. According to Varvok he had no prejudice against aliens and his mixed crew of various races proved that. He also believed in cooperation above all. Something told him that the good Commander wanted to make this alliance last too, but not in the way Varvok and perhaps Zek envisioned. He more than likely wanted them to help continue the fight against the Covenant, help save humanity. After all, they had helped them do just that just yesterday.

Retz, however, knew Zek. He was out. He had escaped the Covenant and a war that he never felt was his. He wasn't going to get dragged back into it. He suspected Zek would be happy to assist the humans in his own way, but he would not fight for them. He had gotten his freedom back and he would sell it again to anyone. If Shepard wanted that from him, he would be disappointed. Retz also doubted the others aboard would be keen on the idea themselves. They had no love for the Covenant, but they had little reason to like the UNSC either. Just because they shared an enemy didn't make them friends.

However, just because he wouldn't fight their war, Zek sounded like he wanted to try at being friends. Or at least business partners. Retz doubted though that he really saw all that much of a difference between the two.

"I know that look you're giving," Zek noted. "You're thinking I've read this wrong."

"I'm just saying I don't think Shepard is interested in helping us in rising within the pirate hierarchy," he informed him plainly. "He has other things on his mind."

"Of course he does, and I'm going to explain to him that we can help soothe that troubled mind," Zek promised slyly. "He's a reasonable man, I've seen it myself. We can do business, I'm sure of it. I just need to lay down the groundwork and we can move from there."

"Maybe I should handle any negotiation first," Retz tried to insist. "It is kinda what I do."

"I appreciate the offer, bud, but this has to be between me and him," Zek claimed proudly. "Shipmaster to shipmaster, if you will. I'll be back in a few hours, let you know what's going down. If nothing else, I'll be able to convince him to talk to Holland and get us access to something we can use for a trade."

Retz sighed, no sense in convincing him to back off. Once Zek had settled on something he wasn't about to stop until he had seen it through. As Zek started walking down the corridor without him, he suddenly turned back.

"Trust me, I got this. Take a load off, Retz, enjoy what's left of the after party," he insisted. "Let loose a little. We're pirates again, it's what we do."

"I'll think about it," Retz replied, which as they both knew was code for 'no thanks' among them.

Zek just laughed and walked off. Retz really hoped his friend knew what he was doing and that he wasn't setting himself up for disappointment. Shepard was probably reasonable, but there were more factors in play just him. The nature of this alliance was still in flux and no one really knew where it would ultimately go. Retz never did like uncertainties, they always made his job even harder.

* * *

A large swirling orange gas giant filled the window, similar to the one that they had left behind when Halo exploded but with a small asteroid belt surrounding it. A spectacular sight, one that made being a UNSC Marine feel like it was more than just shooting aliens and fighting insurrectionists. It was not, however, the most bizarre thing one could see staring out the window.

Kowalski and Ellingham were currently looking at the Corvette they were towing just behind them. There were at least three Jackals in spacesuits walking along the hull, magboots holding them to the surface. They were there to repair what few holes were left in the boat though, that was being taken care of by another group. No, they were using high powered paint sprayers it seemed, spewing out streams of green and yellowish paint. From what Kowalski could see of the outline they were drawing he concluded they were painting a snake of some kind. Made sense when you remember the name of their ship.

"Those ugly feather brains have a weird set of priorities," Ellingham bluntly stated after what seemed like a long hour or so of staring.

Kowalski just nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, though this could just be normal for them," he admitted. "I mean, these are the first Jackals we've met that haven't tried to blow our brains out."

"Still weirds me out, man," Ellingham added. "Covie deserters working with us. I'll be honest, I never thought that would happen. Not in a million years. And Jackal Pirates of all the things, crazy. My nephew is gonna freak when I tell him this story."

Kowalski briefly wondered in his mind 'if we get out of this', but he pushed it aside. Despite the ceremony just awhile ago, he still couldn't help but feel optimistic. For the first time since before the Covies found Reach, he actually had some hope again. They had survived Halo, defeated a bunch of alien parasites, took a Covenant Corvette and destroyed a chunk of the enemy fleet at the same time. The losses still hurt, but the feeling of euphoria hadn't gone away. They had come out of this with something to show for it for once, it didn't feel entirely hopeless.

Of course, there was still the wrinkle of having to cart a bunch of space pirates around with them. He hated to say it, but he still felt uncomfortable having them so close. They had been trying to kill him just a few days prior and their presence still felt a bit shifty. Still, seeing them paint a big green snake across their ship's hull made it slightly less unnerving.

"Wouldn't have pegged them for having an artistic side," he noted aloud.

"Yeah, that's a shocker," Ellingham agreed. "They don't seem like the cultured type. You know, with the smell and all. Honestly, I'm not trying to be rude here, they all have a terrible musk. It's like they wallow in their own filth or something."

"Historically, pirates on Earth weren't big on hygiene either," Kowalski observed with a shrug. "At least that's what I learned in history class. Guess some things ain't much different in space."

"I'm not really that surprised," Ellingham chortled slightly back. "Have you heard about what they drink? Ichor, I looked it up. It's friggin bile... from like open sores and glands and shit. Gross. Apparently, scuttlebutt says they get it from some weird ass fucking space whale that secretes the stuff."

Kowalski visibly winced.

"Ugh, I bet Pearson would chug it down if you dared him," he suggested.

"Forget Pearson, Ramirez would do it in a heartbeat," Ellingham countered.

Yeah, Kowalski supposed he would. Ramirez was a bit of a risk taker after all, ending up on point more often than not. Although he wondered if he'd pause for a bit before downing space whale bile.

"I guess we can't really be too harsh," Kowalski reasoned. "I mean, they're aliens. There's probably a few things that would taste disgusting to them that we eat."

"Maybe, but that doesn't make this any less bizarre," Ellingham argued. "You hear about this big party they're having? It's one big celebration or something for them."

"They did just escape the Covenant and are pretty much in the clear now," Kowalski said, trying to play devil's advocate a little. "You can't blame them for being happy."

"It's still awkward, dude," Ellingham reminded him. "We're honoring our dead, they party like it's New Year's. I don't know man, just seems odd, like it's not real to them what's going on."

Considering what they had survived, Kowalski wondered if a lot of it was real. Most of it felt like a nightmare. In that vein, maybe the Jackals were just trying to suppress it. But even he admitted it felt a bit wrong for them to feel happy about everything, while on the flip-side they had lost so many good people. Some of them they had probably killed themselves. Trying to keep an open mind was difficult in that environment.

"I hear some of the _Normandy_ crew checked out their shindig by the way," Ellingham added. "Think Samara was there?"

"Doubtful," Kowalski said with a laugh. "She keeps giving the space vultures and their four-eyed buddies death looks. When the ceremony ended and the coffin was floating off she told me she had to get back to meditation, lest she accidentally runs into one of them again. She really doesn't like being around them."

"Yeah, I forgot, the whole code thing, kill the guilty and all that," Ellingham suddenly remembered. "Gotta say, that has to make conversations uncomfortable as hell. I had a psycho girlfriend once, took everything I said out of context, thought I wanted to cheat on her if I gave our waitress a nice tip, when my grandma was sick she thought I was making up excuses to not see her, really toxic relationship man. Sex was good though."

"Yeah, Sam's not like that," Kowalski stated, quick to defend the Asari Justicar. "One, we're just friends. Two, most of the time we just talk about some of her cases or what her people like or what it was like growing up on the Moon, regular stuff. Never got the sense she wanted to kill me for anything."

"If you say so, man," Ellingham shrugged. "Just letting you know you can't use my out if things turn sour."

Kowalski raised his brow slightly at that.

"What was your out?" He asked suspiciously.

"Joining the Marines," he replied grinning slightly before breaking into a laugh.

Kowalski shook his head at that.

"Okay, actually it was moving to another town, I just thought the first one was funnier," he relented. "Point is, that's not an option either. Although to be honest, I'm glad Sam is watching the sneaky little birds anyway. They try anything, she'll waste them easy. She is pretty badass."

Kowalski grinned at that, remembering all the times Samara had pretty much proven that. He supposed it was nice to know she was looking out for them by keeping an eye on the Jackals. On the other hand, Ellingham didn't see the look in her eyes that he did. She did not like being stuck in this situation, her hand forced as it were. The Asari had already expressed her problems with her code being in conflict, this was probably eating her up inside even more.

"Speaking of badass," Ellingham suddenly spoke up in awe. "Look who's just showed up."

Kowalski followed his friend's gaze and realized what his friend was talking about. Just a few feet away, staring out into the void, was the giant green armored super soldier himself. The Master Chief, Spartan, war hero and all around idol to every soldier in the UNSC. Kowalski had seen him a few times marching through Alpha Base on Halo, but never this close. Now, on the list of impressive past victories, he had added saving all their lives and the galaxy itself from the threat of Halo. Suffice to say, Kowalski felt a bit weak in the knees.

"What's he doing?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

"Admiring the gas giant, I guess," Ellingham replied, his tone matching Kowalski's.

The two of them stared at the man for at least half a minute more, just taking in the fact he was even here. One would think he'd be talking to Holland or even Commander Shepard about something. Maybe even getting ready for the next fight. There were no cryopods on this ship, so him and the other Spartans couldn't sleep like they usually did.

"Well, you gonna go talk to him?" Ellingham asked insistently.

"Are you kidding?" Kowalski responded defensively. "You go talk to him, I'm not going to go bother him. I'll look like a total idiot."

"He's still human ya know," Ellingham argued. "It's not like he's Lord Hood, he's a ground soldier. He's in the dirt, like us."

"Yeah, but we're grunts, he's a god damn legend," Kowalski countered. "I wouldn't even know where to friggin start!"

"Come on, man," Ellingham insisted. "When else are we going to get the chance to talk to him? At least not when the bullets are flying anyway."

Kowalski knew he was right, but he still had no idea what he would say. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he should. He'd like to at least thank him for saving their asses, maybe even shake his hand at least. Would be a story to tell the kids... well, if he ever ended up having kids. Besides, he was the first in his squad to talk to an alien, how hard could a Spartan be? As he tried to work up the nerve, he kept staring at the solemn and stoic super soldier before them. He looked real deep in thought, what it was about he couldn't be sure. Who knew how a Spartan's mind worked, bred for war and all that. If he and Ellingham wanted to talk to him, they'd have to make up their minds before he decided to stop literally staring into space.

* * *

Staring out into the dark, looking past the massive gas giant, the Master Chief kept a silent vigil. Usually by this time he'd be back in cyro sleep, but that wasn't an option right now. It forced his mind to wander a bit more than usual, his thoughts to drift. Technically, he was still on mission, but there was no direct threat beyond keeping ahead of the Covenant no doubt hunting them. He had been going over every event that had led them to this situation aboard this commandeered Covenant vessel. His mind wandered back from the destruction of Halo, to their alliance with these pirates, to the discovery of the Flood and the evacuation of the _Pillar of Autumn_. At the end of his recollection of events, however, was always another doomed world, Reach.

That planet had been home for a very long time, it was hard to believe it was now a glassed husk. True, it held much hardship and anger, but for better or worse it was his childhood. It was where he had forged himself into what he was today. More importantly, it was where he had met his brothers in arms. It was probably the chief reason he felt the pain of those years was worth it. He had never known truer friends than those of the Spartan II program. They were closer than any family he had long forgotten.

Kelly, the fastest of the Spartans, so quick she had to slow herself down just to spar with him and the others. She was taller than him for awhile, didn't last long though. You could always count on Kelly to press hard and keep moving. She was the rabbit, but unlike the hare in the fable she never tired or quit. Fred was a lot like him, although probably a bit more empathetic than most. Despite him never wanting to stand out in a crowd he more than made up for it in other areas. He was a good leader, if he had to be somewhere else he could count on Fred to take command. It was why he had placed him in charge of the ground team back on Reach, back when things got bad.

They were supposed to be getting ready for a secret mission when the Covenant hit them first. Priorities shifted, they had to split up in a bid to save the planet. Chief, Linda and another Spartan, James, went to an Orbital Space Station in need of having it's AI wiped. Fred and Kelly went ground side to prevent the planet's power generators from being destroyed, desperately needed to keep the Orbital MAC guns firing. Then James got killed. After that Linda was badly hurt and Reach was all but overrun as the MACs stopped firing.

Had it not been for the _Normandy's_ apt arrival they probably would've lost Linda. Instead they got her into stasis, preventing things from getting worse. Later the ship's physician Doctor Chakwas, and equally brilliant Professor Mordin Solus, helped to save her life. There was no such reprieve for Kelly and Fred and all the other Spartans down on the surface of Reach. They had to abandon them and it was the biggest gut punch he had suffered in a long while.

Despite the loss, he soon found new allies, new brothers in arms, among the _Normandy_ crew. He tried to keep them distant at first, grateful to them for saving Linda's life but wary to accept them fully. He soon realized that had been an error in judgment. It was only through their combined efforts that they had accomplished one of the greatest significant victories of the war so far. They could never replace the brothers and sisters he lost, but he felt comfortable around them enough by now. He could call them friends, that wasn't easy for him to do with most people outside the Spartans.

However, he still missed those he had lost. He had Linda at least, a dear part of his old life, but it still felt like he had left a piece of himself back on Reach. Yet he kept feeling his mind wander back to thoughts of the planet, thoughts of his team. Those thoughts aligned with the events of the past day, when for a brief moment they thought everyone else but them had perished with Halo. Then, as if by a miracle, they discovered that was not the case. More had survived, they had lived through the destruction of the ring world.

That fact made his mind wander, made his thoughts drift. Now he stood at this window, trying to peer through the void. Trying to see if he could pinpoint the flickering remains of another devastated world in vain. It was all he could do to keep himself from thinking too much on current events, of hoping too much.

"Never really pictured you for a stargazer."

The smooth feminine voice came from within his own head, his neural uplink. It was playful in tone, a bit prideful and full of wit as well. It wasn't arrogant, however, just knowingly accepting of it's position. She was always like that, always trying to break through the tough exterior. It was kinda like a game to her, one he had long since accepted.

"Cortana," he greeted. "You've been quiet for awhile."

"Been busy running a few diagnostics on your armor, not to mention compiling a logistics report with EDI and DOT," Cortana explained succinctly. "You should know by now, us AIs never stop working."

That was because AIs never stopped thinking, it was in their programming. Cortana was slightly more of a chatterbox than most, always eager to share an opinion of thought. Most of the time to make smart ass remark of course.

"Ever consider taking a break?" Chief asked her.

"This is my break, bugging you," Cortana replied coyly. "I am just more capable of multitasking. Allowing me to do my work and still get some form of recreation. I'm also playing Chess against myself, I'm winning by the way. I'm thinking of challenging EDI when she has some run-times to spare. I feel my odds are good, what do you think?"

"It depends, are you going for three dimensional or classic?" He asked in return.

"Rhombic actually, those other two got boring by the time I was six months old," Cortana informed him plainly. "Now let's get back to what's on your mind would-be astronomer?"

Despite Cortana's quirks, Chief had come to appreciate her presence. When they first told them she'd be sharing his head space within the neural uplink, he was admittedly apprehensive. Maybe it was because of her penchant for sarcasm or her more than a little flippant attitude towards him. However, she had saved his life more than once. When the chips were down, he could rely on her. He had the feeling it wasn't just because she was programmed to either. She was as invested in the mission as she was, their time on Halo proved that to him.

Be that as it may, while he did trust her now, he didn't feel like sharing every waking thought. At least not at the moment. This feeling of nostalgia was a bit of a distraction currently gnawing at him. It would pass eventually and he didn't want to dwell on it for too long. Still, he had to give her something or she'd just keep pushing. So he went for a half truth.

"Just still processing our current situation," he assured her.

"You and everyone else in this mini-flotilla," Cortana stated in agreement. "Although for all intents and purposes we've gone longer without any major incidents between the factions than expected. Probably due mostly to fact we are all avoiding each other."

"We're not going to be able to manage that forever," Chief cautioned. "There's only three ships between us all."

"And one of them is significantly smaller," Cortana added. "However, I'm hoping we can alleviate the inevitable tension once we acquire more supplies. Which we will need if my calculations are correct. Even with the stores of food accumulated between all vessels, we have little less than a few weeks of rations. Now we could have the Marines start eating the Jackal's food but... well, I've looked up what they eat and it's predictably not pretty."

Chief finally took his eyes off the stars and looked slightly up at that.

"What exactly do they eat?" He asked curiously.

"A disgusting slop that passes for a stew for one thing," she replied. "I'm not sure what exactly is in it, but I'm sure at least some of it is still wiggling despite being cooked. Not surprising, this is a species that drinks space whale blister bile as an alcoholic beverage."

Well he certainly wasn't going to be eating that. Realistically though, food wasn't that great a concern. He and the other Spartans had survived long periods of time without eating. He suspected Kat and Jun had undergone similar conditioning. The augmentations certainly helped in that regard as well. If it came down to it, they could starve a little. However, four less people in need of food wasn't going to make much of a difference for everyone else.

It was even more of a concern for some of their alien friends on the _Normandy_. Garrus and Tali had different amino acids according to what he recalled from their profiles. They couldn't eat the same food as humans, it would make them sick. They needed Dextro-based foods to survive. They probably had a stockpile of the stuff, but who knew how long that would last at this point.

"So we're going to need food and water above all else depending on how long we're out here," he reasoned aloud. "What are our options for that?"

"Well, there is some consideration towards a hydroponics lab of a sorts, if we could make some room," Cortana explained. "According to EDI, Professor Solus is already trying to work something out in regards to Tali and Garrus' unique diets. If he can get that working we can probably transfer a similar setup for everyone else. Problem is, we'd still need something to actually grow before hand and seeds are in short supply. MREs rarely contain viable agricultural material. Maybe potatoes if there is enough of them, we can survive off that. But there's still water to concern ourselves with if we go through with this plan."

There were certainly no shortage of problems to work out then. Thing was, for the moment very few of those were in his wheelhouse of expertise. Chief couldn't help but feel a bit useless in that regard. Then again, if push came to shove he'd probably play some kind of role in securing such materials.

"Maybe if we find a viable planet," Chief suggested. "We could send a team down, collect some possible food samples to resupply ourselves."

"That's one option, course we'd first need to find one and there's no guarantee we'll come across one soon," Cortana cautioned. "I suppose we could take a page out of the book our new friends use, piracy. Covenant ships are likely hunting us, they'd have a few supplies at least. The food the Elites eat isn't nearly as gross as far as I understand."

Either way he'd probably volunteer to assist in securing supplies or taking the enemy ship. At least it would give him, Linda, Kat and Jun something to do. And if they were working with Shepard's crew, they no doubt get the job done in record time as well.

"Easiest solution though would be to find some place to dock and resupply, a port or station," Chief noted. "No idea where we'd find one out here that was friendly."

"I imagine the Jackals' leader has an idea," Cortana suggested. "He has to pick up a new slipspace drive from somewhere. I doubt he's just going to find one floating out in space. And any critical repairs are going to require pulling into a dock of some kind."

If Zek had any destination in mind, he hadn't shared it openly just yet. Perhaps he was weighing his options for the moment. One thing was for sure, if it was a safe haven for space pirates it probably was a bit shady in general. Chief didn't know what to think about that. He had rarely really dealt with the underworld of the galaxy. That was the espionage game, ONI's job. He was a soldier, tip of the spear on the front lines. At least that was what he used to be.

Currently, the only real mission was getting home to Earth and that would take awhile no matter what. As long as they were out here and working with Zek, Varvok and the rest of the Deserters, he'd have to adjust his usual outlook. He was more akin to a fugitive now, they all were. They were being hunted by the Covenant in unknown territory, adapting to that was the key to their survival.

If there was one thing he knew though, it was how to adapt.

"Linda said you'd be here."

Chief turned briefly to see Commander Shepard already walking up behind him.

"I'm guessing you're not big on celebrating with the space pirates either," he asked.

"Not really, sir," Chief responded.

"Same, half my crew decided to check out how Jackals party," Shepard noted. "Hopefully they aren't too hungover come morning. Or sick given what they serve as drinks over there."

Shepard soon stepped beside him, joining the Spartan in his stargazing. He briefly looked over to see the Jackals, still painting their hull.

"Are they making a snake?" He asked surprised.

"I believe so," Chief admitted. "Although to be honest, I wasn't really paying much attention. Other things on my mind."

"I know the feeling," Shepard concurred. "Hard to relax when you know there's more of the fight headed your way."

To the Master Chief, Commander Shepard was both incredibly similar and vastly different. That was the impression he had slowly built up during their time together. Shepard was less insular than himself, less closed off. He was idealistic and charismatic, a soldier yes, but also diplomatic in his approach. He had seen that firsthand when he had taken the offer the deserters presented him. Chief could never see himself as much of a negotiator. He and his team didn't usually give the enemy the opportunity, then again the Covenant were rarely much for talking.

Just because Shepard used his words more often, however, did not mean he was soft. He was a great leader, he cared for his team and he was more than capable on the battlefield. His biotic abilities were most impressive in the field, making up for raw physical power with that of the more subtle strengths of the mind. It was more than just fancy tricks, messing with the mass of opponents and the like. When Shepard unleashed his power, he himself could become the weapon. It never got tiring to watch him turn into a blur of blue light and slam head on into an Elite.

Yet he was still only as strong as his team, which Chief could clearly see he had forged into a finely honed machine. The _Normandy_ crew were much like his Spartans in that way. They were nowhere near as connected or as well-trained, but they made up for their lack genetic modification with their own unique skills.

Put it all together and Commander Shepard was one of the best Marines, the best soldier he had seen outside of the Spartans. If he had grown up in this dimension, Chief had little doubt he would've been one of the many candidates training right along with him on Reach as a child. Then again, he probably wouldn't be the same man if he had. And right now, if they wanted to hold this makeshift alliance together, they needed a few soldiers as skilled with words as weapons. Shepard fit the bill for that job exactly.

"Holland has teams working round the clock to scrub any potential tracking devices or programs on the ship," Shepard stated aloud. "The sooner we know the Covenant can't find us with a flick of a switch the better. Right now that seems to be top priority above everything else."

"Standard Cole Protocol," Chief noted. "Can't risk the Covenant tracking us back to Earth. I'm guessing there's a problem though."

"Yeah," Shepard sighed slightly shaking his head. "It's the fact there's two ships to search, not to mention the crew that came with it. I think it's bringing up some complications."

That was an understatement. Chief didn't pay much attention to scuttlebutt or gossip, but he could feel the tension himself. The Marines and Troopers, they weren't trained to see Covies as friends. None of them were. He could get past it easily. They were deserters, they weren't hostile. At least not for now. But a lot of these men had lost friends, loved ones, some even whole worlds to the Covenant. In the program that had created them, Spartans were taught to not allow emotions to cloud judgment. They couldn't let their personal feelings compromise the mission. At first it was hard to bottle your feelings up, it was still hard in some cases. He had conditioning and training to help him though. The other soldiers of the UNSC, not so much.

"Does Holland suspect Zek or Varvok of anything?" Chief asked.

"I don't think he's worried about them," Shepard answered hopefully. "Well, not entirely anyway. Just that this situation makes things a bit difficult."

"I'll agree with that, sir," Cortana chimed in suddenly. "Holland did agree to this, but it was under very special circumstances. To be fair to our new alien friends though, it's a bit late for them to go back now and they know it. They just helped us destroy a sacred artifact, something the Covenant revered and worshiped. They're marked now, like us. If they helped the Covenant find us, they'd kill them as well."

"Yeah, but Holland doesn't want to take chances," Shepard explained. "A few extra Jackals joined up with us at the last second when they took this ship. It is possible one could be a mole or a plant. Holland probably would feel more at ease if they were able to take a look at the _Fallen Serpent_ themselves, make sure it can't give us away to anyone. To be honest, I can't entirely blame him for being cautious. I have my own concerns."

Chief wondered for a moment what he meant, then he soon zeroed in on the cause.

"Varvok," he stated plainly.

"His men to be accurate," Shepard corrected. "They are probably less happy about this than the Marines are."

"This whole alliance was Varvok's plan as I recall," Cortana mentioned.

"Yeah, but they didn't really have much choice in the matter," Shepard countered with a disgruntled grumble. "Zek was forced into service with a contract. The batarians came here to fight humans. This wasn't what they signed on for. I'd like to think most of them respect Varvok's decision. I know he hates the Covenant, that much is certain. But some of his men, they might not be on board."

Shepard didn't seem very comfortable himself making that statement. Knowing him, Chief suspected he wanted this to work. Like him, the Commander believed in teamwork, unity, the strength of a squad backing you up and sharing in your struggles. It was how he built his own team, finding others with the talent and skill to fight alongside him. For Shepard, those others didn't have to be human to be of value. Varvok called it "building bridges" or something, a belief that meant reaching out to people who were different could make you stronger. His team was proof of that at least, but this situation was a bit different from that.

"I guessing you haven't brought these concerns to Varvok," Chief postulated.

"I don't like to accuse people of things without proof," Shepard said plainly. "So far, none of Varvok's men have done anything to directly harm us or the mission. I want to be cautious without becoming paranoid. The problem ultimately comes back to Varvok though. His interests align with us, but I think that's as far as it goes. Experience has taught me that those kind of situations can create cracks."

"Because he's with us but not really," Cortana finished. "His agenda aligns with us, but it's still separate."

"Exactly and that makes any alliance problematic," Shepard confirmed for the AI. "And to be fair, it's not just him. That's going to be a problem with everyone. He and the batarians are probably just the most dicey in the sense of a long term partnership. He didn't want to send his men to die for the Covenant, why would he put them at risk for humans?"

Shepard rubbed the side of his head in frustration and sighed.

"Maybe I'm thinking on this too hard," he relented. "Hell, I'm probably just being a bit prejudice here. The batarians were the first real enemies I fought in combat. Maybe that's more ingrained in me than I thought."

"Given the circumstances then and now it's not without precedent," Cortana tried to assure him. "I've gone over your history records myself, the batarians aren't exactly the most agreeable species in your galaxy."

"Cortana's right," Chief quickly added. "I read the history logs too. Your encounters with them read almost like our own fights with the Covenant. A lot more successful though."

Shepard gave a friendly huff at that remark. Chief was speaking of course of the same first combat scenario Shepard had mentioned. Called the Skyllian Blitz, according to the records, a human colony world came under attack by a fleet of batarians. They were mostly pirates, slavers and a few "rogue" military personnel, but what they lacked in organization they made up for in brutality. Shepard had been on the planet at the time and, according to the reports, helped hold the line until relief came, rallying civilians and other Marines to stave off the attack. Shepard was able to guess for himself that he was referencing the battle and sounded a lot more humble about it.

"Elysium was different," he explained simply. "By then we had already encountered one alien race and fought with them. We had formulated strategies to make sure we never left another colony vulnerable again. The history books make it seem like I did everything by myself, but it's not true. Just propaganda to boost spirits back home. I had a lot of good people backing me up on the ground, some of them weren't even human themselves. I was a different man back then, before one fight changed everything. My CO was dead, I was losing squadmates left and right, someone had to take charge. It just so happened I decided to volunteer for the job."

"Regardless sir, you got the job done and saved lives," Chief stated formally and respectfully. "In my book, that's all that really matters. Whatever else they say, that part isn't propaganda."

Shepard just smiled at the Spartan.

"I appreciate that, Chief," Shepard assured him. "I just hope I'm not falling into the expectations of what Varvok's men might think of me. I did kinda screw up their revenge, it's going to be hard to earn their respect. I think I at least have Varvok's, although he probably stills sees me as an enemy, just one he has to share a bunk with for the time being."

"If it helps, I would advise not thinking solely on the batarians, Commander," Cortana cautioned. "The Jackals are as much a part of the equation as they are. Perhaps getting a handle on them might make things concerning Varvok easier."

"Worth a shot," Shepard admitted. "I need an opening somewhere if we're going to make this whole strange bedfellows arrangement work."

For a brief moment all was silent as the two of them return to looking out at the nearby gas giant and it's ring of asteroids. Their minds soon drifted away from ship board politics to less stressful matters.

"It's deceptively peaceful isn't it," Shepard noted.

"Always is," Chief agreed.

"In reality it's a big vacuum of death," Shepard added next with a huff. "And yet staring at is a nice way to clear your thoughts a bit."

Chief could agree with that, it was how he spent some of his time in the field after all. Gazing into the stars as a kid made him forget that he had been kidnapped, that he was being trained for war and that life was suddenly a lot more complicated than it had seemed. Now he was doing it again, and yet he still couldn't shake his thoughts. About Reach. About Blue Team.

"I think that pattern in the gas giant looks like a rabbit," Shepard randomly pointed out. "What do you think?"

Leave it to Shepard to find a way to bring his thoughts back. Even if it was in a strange way. It was a typical minor tangent to be sure, but Chief decided to humor him, taking a closer look at the gas giant.

"I think it's duck," Cortana declared before Chief could say anything. "It's a little too rounded to be a rabbit."

Chief would've answered himself, but they were soon interrupted when someone coughed politely next to them. He turned with Shepard to see two Marines now looking at them ineptly.

"Commander Shepard, Master Chief," one of them greeted.

They both saluted at their superiors as they turned.

"At ease," Shepard told them, looking towards the one that had talked. "You're Kowalski, right? The one Samara spends so much time with."

"Yes, that's me," the Marine said. "This is Ellingham, he's my squadmate. We've been on a few missions together, with your crew. We've just never really formally met as far as I recall."

"It's an honor to meet you both," Ellingham greeted them. "You guys are badass, if that's okay to say."

"Oh this is adorable," Cortana merrily spoke in private to both Shepard and the Chief. "I half expect them to start asking for autographs."

Chief didn't really react, but Shepard tried to put his best face forward.

"Thank you for the compliment," he told Ellingham. "It's good to know we have made an impression."

"We didn't want to bother you, but it was probably the only chance we'd get to talk to you," Kowalski explained. "Well, outside of a firefight of course."

Chief was a bit out of his element at the moment. He wasn't used to people talking to him, asking questions. Thankfully, these were other soldiers, not reporters. He could handle that. With that in mind, he went for the most likely response to give anyone in their shared profession.

"It's alright, we weren't really discussing anything at the moment," Chief assured them. "What kind of action have you seen?"

"Well we were on that Cartographer island for one," Ellingham noted. "Saw how you took that beachhead first hand."

"Not to mention all the times we've run into your squad before or since," Kowalski added sheepishly. "It's been a hell of a ride for sure."

"Sadly it's hardly over," Shepard cautioned. "We're lucky to have you though. We need every capable soldier we can get right now."

"Heh, we're cool as long as you two are around," Ellingham stated with a grin. "You guys are like the classic warhounds, man. One man army and everything."

Chief appreciated the praise, but wasn't really comfortable with being placed so high on a pedestal.

"No one soldier is any more important than the other," he explained to them. "What matters is that we face the enemy as a unit. Pure and simple as that."

"I guess but it still doesn't make you any less awesome," Ellingham responded, holding out his hand.

Kowalski did the same as his friend. Not wanting to leave the Marines hanging, Chief shook Ellingham's hand and then Kowalski's. Shepard did the same in reverse order. As he finished, Shepard's wrist started to ring and brought up his omni-tool as he called it.

"Oh, I have something I need to get to," he said. "I should go. It was nice meeting you two. I'll say hi to Samara for you, Private. Sorry about cutting this short. Chief, I'll see you later."

Chief now stood there, with two wide eyed Marines still staring him down. He could almost see Cortana silently holding in a giggle at the whole awkward spectacle. As Shepard left, Chief let out a small cough to clear his throat.

"I should probably see to my other duties with my team," he stated. "It was good to meet you. I hope we don't have to get into a firefight to speak again."

With that, Chief hurried away. At least from the sound of things as he left, the Marines weren't too heartbroken over his cutting and running. They just seemed excited to have shaken the hand of a Spartan. Good for them, it would be a nice story to tell their other friends. Maybe it would even boost their morale. Cortana, in the meantime, let out a small laugh as they left.

"That was a rather ungraceful way to end a conversation," she said. "Also incredibly priceless."

"Hmm," was all Chief could say in return.

Thankfully the AI dropped it, although he suspected she kept a grin on her face for awhile after that. At least his mind was now off his prior concerns. Right now, he just wanted to talk to someone he was more familiar with and try to forget this moment had happened.

* * *

Tali stepped over the passed out form of one of the Jackal Pirates. She thanked the ancestors silently for her high quality olfactory filters. She could only imagine the stink of this mess hall, especially during this little after party. Those who were sprawled out on the floor dunk were singing to one another, possibly some old sea shanty from their planet. None of the songs matched the music still filling the hall, loud, boisterous and fast. She also saw a few of the revelers watching, well, significantly provocative holo images of what she assumed were the female species of their race.

She was never one to judge the vices of others, so long as they harmed no one but themselves. Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. This whole ship, this aptly named _Fallen Serpent_ , was like being back on Omega again. Only it didn't feel like anyone was in control here, this whole celebration in fact felt spur of the moment, random. She suspected that the chaos was nothing new though, this one was just bigger, considering the mess.

That fact however was not as big a deterrent as one would think though. She spotted a few batarians among the dwindling crowd, seemingly enjoying themselves. Tali supposed it was not entirely without reason. Given their story, both the Jackals and their four-eyed compatriots had survived a harrowing ordeal. She wasn't here to fault their method of celebration, although she imagined some of the Marines probably did. This was the direct opposite of the funeral ceremony earlier in the morning. While these pirates had been partying all night.

Again though, she wasn't here to judge them on how they enjoyed themselves. She was here to gather up her fellow crew. Miranda had wanted to do it, but Tali insisted she would. Lawson had better things to do than play party police. Besides, she had to get back Daniels and Donnelly herself. Kenneth had suggested something about introducing the Jackals to whiskey and Gabby of course tagged along to make sure he didn't get into too much trouble. Now she needed them back in engineering though, they still had systems checks to do after all and she did not have much time herself to do all of them.

Luckily, she ran into at least one of her crewmates who would hopefully help her in locating her wayward engineering staff. Sitting with her back to her and seemingly just enjoying the chaotic carousal around her was Kasumi Goto, the greatest thief in the galaxy, although not the most famous for that very reason. Her hooded visage was unmistakable among the various ugly looking bird aliens milling about the room. It wasn't that much of a surprise to see her here. Tali had known Kas long enough to know how much the thief was attracted to the exotic, strange and new. Drunken Space Pirate Party met every single one of those criteria. She must've heard the quarian's approach, because she quickly turned around.

"Tali!" Kasumi greeted jubilantly. "Good to see you! I honestly didn't think this was your scene."

"It's not that I don't enjoy a good party," Tali tried to explain. "It's just, well, when it's all centered around a substance I can't really drink, it's hard to get interested in it."

"Fair enough," Kasumi shrugged. "Lucky me it was 'bring your own booze' apparently. I grabbed some from the cabinet in my quarters. Figured it would be a nice 'Welcome to the Crew Gift' for them. Barely got to drink any, they snuck off with most of it I think. I imagine it's already all gone."

Tali could believe that, given the unconscious flocks of Jackals at one nearby table. Their tongues were sprawled out on the surface and they were snoring incredibly loudly. For whatever else they were, no one could accuse these ex-Covies of being wall flowers. When they celebrated, they did it until they couldn't move no more.

"So was it all just drinking and watching half-naked aliens on holograms?" Tali asked looking about the room once more.

"Lot of sing-a-longs," Kasumi said. "Quite a bit of dancing here and there, not all of it graceful. A bunch were playing some kind of electronic card game. Oh and Jack got into a lot arm wrestling matches. No one wanted to face off against Grunt, but they figured someone could take her."

"How'd she do?" Tali asked, already laughing slightly under her throat.

"About how you would expect," Kasumi answered simply. "Thankfully she didn't break any arms. Dislocated one though. Everyone had a good laugh."

At least it sounded like they enjoyed themselves with a minimal of injuries then. She didn't want to be the one to tell Miranda that Jack had put one of their new allies in the infirmary. Minor ship incidents were the last thing any of them wanted right now.

"Where is Grunt by the way?" Tali asked, searching the room for the krogan. "I hope he's not too hungover. I don't want to have to carry him back to the ship."

"If anything he is surprisingly not buzzed enough," Kasumi informed her as she pointed over to a table. "He's over there, still trying to out drink every challenger."

Tali then noticed the krogan pounding down what seemed to be shots of the slowly growing in infamy Ichor that the Jackals apparently enjoyed so much. There looked to be a ton of empty glasses, strewn about the table. From the looks of it, Grunt had been at this for awhile.

"He's drunk at least six of them under the table," Kasumi added as the krogan slammed down another glass in victory. "Either what they're giving him isn't strong enough or his metabolism is working overtime. I'm starting to see why his species invented Ryncol, only way they can get drunk is by making something fatal to everyone else."

"Defying death is their favorite pastime," said Tali, looking at Kas with an unseen grin. "Kinda like you and stealing I guess."

Kasumi chuckled at the comment.

"I like the thrill more than anything," she corrected. "Every job is like an adventure, never boring. That it happens to involve taking expensive things is just a bonus."

"Partying with space pirates certainly sounds thrilling," Tali presumed. "Another thing off your bucket list I suppose"

"Right along with taking over a ship with space pirates and watching an ancient superweapon explode," Kasumi added merrily. "If I ever decide to make a memoir, it is going to be so bad ass now."

Kasumi tapped the seat beside her with an open palm. Tali sat herself down. She didn't intend to be here for long, but if she was going to chat with Kasumi about current events she might as well be comfortable. Besides, what she just mentioned brought up a few things that were pretty much on everyone's minds.

"You've adjusted to this whole situation better than anyone," she observed. "The Marines are still apprehensive and I don't even wanna know how the ODSTs feel given what happened."

"I've had to make friends of enemies before," Kasumi stated fondly. "Quite a few were cops, helped them with some cases. They quickly realized I was worth more outside of a cell than in one. This situation is a little easier for me though. These are my people."

Kasumi waved her hand across the room, just in time to spot two drunken Jackals trying to wrestle a erotic holo imager away from the other. At the same time, some kind of gambling game broke out into fisticuffs as one Jackal leapt over the table and tackled another. Credit ships and other valuables went flying into the air. Tali looked at Kasumi with a playfully incredulous stare.

"Okay, they're short on class, I'll grant that," the thief relented. "Also they kinda stink. But they make up for it in style, I assure you. Either way, we wouldn't all be here right now without them. The UNSC would do well remember that."

"They didn't do it out of the goodness of their hearts," Tali reminded her. "They did it because they had no choice."

"For a time, we worked for Cerberus because we had no choice," Kasumi countered. "Way I hear it they had the same problem. Their break-up was just messier. So they're in it for less than noble reasons, so were Zaeed, Jack and myself when you think about it. Point is, I'm not in a position to judge them and I don't think it's fair of our UNSC friends to still treat them like the bad guys."

"I agree in a way, but there is a matter of security to consider," Tali tried to caution. "You have to be sure they're sincere and that they don't try to take advantage of the situation."

"I'm not saying give them the run of things," Kasumi argued. "I'm saying the least Holland's people could do is not act like they're still Covenant. Treat them for who they are, not what they were."

Tali looked over to see one Jackal mixing several glasses of ichor together before chugging it down while his friends urged him on.

"And what they are is a ship full renegade privateers with few table manners," the quarian observed aloud.

"Exactly," Kasumi agreed. "It's only fair. I mean, look at our crew. Shepard treated us all the same despite our less than reputable backgrounds. He made sure I didn't steal anything important while aboard the ship, kept Jack from getting into fistfights with Miranda and made sure Grunt behaved himself around Garrus and Mordin. Being cautious doesn't mean we can't be respectable."

Tali didn't really feel like arguing the point. For one she didn't want to seem like a hypocrite. When she first joined the _Normandy SR-1_ during the hunt for the rogue Spectre Saren, she had been afraid of being treated like a lowlife thief herself. The crew, however, welcomed her and actually grew to value her input. After about a month or so of the galaxy looking at her like she was vermin, it was a welcome change of pace. She had already judged Legion unfairly before truly getting to know him, it wasn't really right to do the same to these Jackals. Given the risks they had all taken, they at least deserved the benefit of the doubt.

Mostly though, she felt there were bigger concerns than the space pirates. They were just one tenuous issue amid several. The ODSTs were getting singled out by Troopers and Marines. The batarians gave any human the widest berth they could manage. And the grunts, the methane breathing aliens, not her krogan crewmate, were waddling about nervously trying to avoid everyone. It was a boiling pot of emotions, anger, frustration and perhaps even hatred are simmering below the surface. It was a bit unnerving. No one really knew when it could all come to a head or it would mean when it did.

Tali suddenly spotted one of the grunts herself. The little alien was waddling down the way with a small tray in hand. On it was what looked to be food, or what passed for food with Jackals. One of the bird-creatures suddenly reached out with his bony fingers and grabbed the bowl of slop from the tray. The grunt jumped slightly at this before being shooed off by an annoyed space pirate. Said pirate than proceeded to stuff his face while the grunt quickly scrambled away.

"They're using the grunts as waiters?" Tali asked Kasumi curiously.

"Yeah," Kasumi groaned despondently. "I don't know what it is, but they're not particularly kind to the little guys. I've seen people treat wait staff like crap before, but the Jackals just seem intent on making up an excuse. Really don't get what's going on there, but they have said they're not going to send them out to fight. I suppose this is their way of making them useful. Can't say I like that aspect of this party."

Tali wondered if she should bring this up with Shepard later. The last thing they needed was a potential problem between the Jackal Pirates and the Grunt Waiters spilling over into the already heated issues between the other factions aboard.

"So," Tali spoke up, trying to get her mind off the troubling thoughts. "How exactly is that ichor I keep hearing about?"

"No idea, haven't tried it yet myself," Kasumi admitted. "I've mostly just been watching how everyone else reacts to it. As far as I know, none of my fellow humans have downed the space whale bile either."

"It doesn't exactly sound appealing," Tali concurred.

Both of them were suddenly drawn to a large banging sound on a nearby table. A pack of Jackals had rolled what looked to be a keg of some kind onto the table. No doubt full of ichor, the aliens were already gathering around to pour out one last shot for the road, or two, maybe even three. Who could tell when or if there would be a last call?

Kasumi suddenly cracked her knuckles, looking over at the keg.

"You know what, screw it," she declared. "I want the full space pirate experience. Wish me luck, Tali. I'm going in."

"I'll stand by on hair holding duty then," Tali stated as her friend got up from the table.

The quarian soon followed her friend as they walked over to the gathering group of drunkards themselves. They ugly birds didn't notice them until they were standing over them. The Jackals looked up curiously, wondering why the women were there. Then Kasumi grabbed one of the mugs from the hands of one of the group.

"Mind if I get the first shot?" She asked.

The Jackal at the tap started to chuckle and the others soon joined in.

"Well whatta ya know, hisssstory in da makings boysssss!" The Jackal on the tap said, slurring his speech. "Da human wants ichor!"

"First human to drink ichor," one Jackal spoke up, hiccuping in mid sentence. "Dis I gots ta see!"

"You sure you're ready?" One asked cautiously. "This one is from an older male, large blister under the fin."

"It can be next to it's blowhole or buttcrack for all I care," Kasumi shot back. "If it even has one of those. Now you gonna pour or what?"

The Jackals all seemed to laugh at that and quickly grabbed at Kasumi's mug. The tapper filled it up and passed it back. It was thick orangey substance from what Tali could see, swirling with reds and browns. She winced slightly at the thought of what those colors could be.

"Missing the little umbrellas," Kasumi observed. "Would make it less disgusting looking. Oh well, bottom's up I guess."

Kasumi put the mug to her lips and threw the whole thing back. It crept into her mouth and Tali listened as she chugged the whole drink inside. The Jackals all watched with baited breath, wide eyed and in shock. Tali herself was a bit amazed, when Kasumi enacted an impromptu drinking challenge she went into high gear to complete it.

When she was done, Kasumi took a breath and turned her mug upside down to show it was empty. Smacking her lips together, trying it seemed to full appreciate the taste of what she just swallowed, she tried to find words for her experience. The Jackals kept staring on in suspense, before the hooded thief finally spoke.

"Tangy," she stated unassumingly. "Yet bold... also incredibly slimy."

She held out her mug once again.

"How about another?" She asked.

The Jackals looked on in disbelief for a moment and then burst out into uproariously laughter. Tali wasn't sure if it was the drinks or the just the sheer amazement that she liked their favorite drink. They pushed her to the front of the group and poured her another mug alongside theirs. Kasumi looked back briefly to Tali, raising her mug in solidarity with the pirates. Yep, Tali thought, definitely her people.

"When you're done, meet me at the exit," Tali called to her. "We're needed back on the ship."

"Just let me get slightly buzzed, then the night will be complete," Kasumi called out. "Or morning, whatever time it is."

Tali left Kasumi to consume her space whale bile with her new friends. Hopefully she wouldn't get too drunk and the tangy bold slime would come back to haunt her later. Right now, she needed to find the rest of the crew and get them out the door. She luckily spotted Kenneth and Gabby soon after. The former was being consoled by the latter.

"That was every drop I had," Ken grumbled as he shook his head. "I just said a wee bit of it. They took all of it! Where am I going to find more out in the middle of nowhere?"

"I warned you this would happen," Gabby told him fiercely. "What possessed you to bring all five bottles anyway?"

"They were different vintage," Ken explained angrily. "I wanted to give them the full range of flavors! I wasn't plannin' on passing out after six shots!"

"And I keep telling you, you're a lightweight," Gabby argued.

"You could've at least stopped them!" Ken shouted back.

"I'm also not your mother," Gabby responded. "I'm not responsible for every stupid thing you do."

When Tali approached the two broke up their argument at last.

"Cultural exchange didn't go so well, huh?" Tali asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

"He got into a drinking contest with a Jackal, got easily beat and they stole his whiskey when he passed out," Gabby recounted. "It's probably all gone by now. This is what happens when you try to beat a space pirate at his own damn game."

"Where were you exactly during all this?" Tali asked her.

"Gambling, unlike Kenneth though I know when to fold them," she answered proudly. "Not sure what I'm going to do with a bunch of alien credit chits and a holo imager that no doubt contains freaky bird porn on it, but it's the fact I won it that counts."

Tali sighed and placed a hand on Ken's shoulder.

"I think the party is over for you two," she told him. "Sorry it didn't turn out so well, but I need you back in engineering. You okay to work?"

"I'll survive, barely," Kenneth groaned. "Worst night of my life."

"You have remarkably strange standards if this is the worst scenario you could conceive," Gabby told him.

The two shuffled towards the exit. Hopefully Jack and Grunt would be in a similar willing mood to leave. She didn't want to be at this for too long. She still had a few things to sort in engineering and a prior engagement she needed to be at. Hopefully she wouldn't run too late. She'd worry about that later though, right now, her gaze fell upon a certain ex-convict currently table dancing nearby and trying to outdo a holographic jackal female for whatever reason.

* * *

Shepard had managed to get back to the _Normandy_ with a ton of time to spare. He still rushed a bit more than usual to the elevator though. He missed the fact that EDI was trying to talk to him as he entered. It was only when he got off the elevator that she managed to get his attention.

"Shepard, wait," she spoke up frantically. "You need to understand, I tried to stop him."

The Commander stopped in mid walk as he approached his cabin's door.

"Stop who?" He asked confused.

"He overrode the door codes and slipped in before I could lock them," she explained. "He was very persistent on seeing you and incredibly impatient."

"Stop who?" Shepard asked again as he opened the door.

He got his answer when he looked inside his cabin and found someone sitting at his desk's chair. No, not someone, Zek. He was in his usual attire and appearance, scruffy armor marked with a tally of kills, his quills fashioned into something of a mohawk and that eyepiece of his supplemented his sniping skills. Currently he was chewing on an apple of all things, probably stolen from the kitchen at some point. The Jackal noticed Shepard immediately and quickly removed his feet from the rest atop the desk.

"Commander!" He greeted smiling, or at least what passed for one across his beak. "Such a pleasure to see you again."

Zek finally swallowed the apple chunk still in his mouth and then took another large bite. Shepard just looked on dumbfounded, unsure whether to scream in anger or not. After a second or two of gathering his thoughts he exhaled and let his displeasure subside.

"Zek," he said, trying not to sound too annoyed. "This is... unexpected. You. In my cabin. In my chair."

"I apologize if I seem forward, sir," Zek replied, smirking all the while. "Your computer suggested I wait in your crew quarters, but some of your deck hands were giving looks and it wasn't exactly comfortable down there. You were taking a bit long to show up so I decided to just invite myself in."

"I apologize, Commander," said EDI, sounding equally annoyed. "He caught me off guard with his brash behavior and he's more slippery than I thought."

"It's fine, EDI," Shepard her, rubbing the side of his head. "I'll handle this, don't worry."

Zek suddenly took his eyes off Shepard for a moment, looking over to the various model ships in the large display case in front of the desk. He nodded his head for a moment and looked back to Shepard, still wearing an overly pleased grin.

"I've been admiring your collection," he said approvingly. "Quite impressive, Commander. I used to have some ship models myself as a kid. Had to give them up when I needed the cash though, still miss them."

"I just like spaceships," Shepard explained in a rather deadpan manner. "But thank you for the compliment."

"I especially like this big one back here with the huge solar sails, classic design," the Jackal said pointing to the model of the Shadow Broker ship Shepard kept on his desk. "Glad to see other universes appreciate the old modes of space travel."

"It's a unique case," Shepard explained. "More than you realize."

Zek just shrugged at the information, before staring around at the cabin at large.

"You got a nice place up here overall," he complimented once more, spinning the chair around slightly. "I'm going to have to spruce up my own cabin now. All I got in there is a desk and small sitting area. Hell, you got a king-sized bed and a sweet couch. You're living the dream."

"Wasn't my idea, but I don't complain," Shepard informed him.

Zek suddenly got up from the chair walking over to the aquarium on the other side of the room. The Jackal's eyes were drawn to one of the fish, specifically the school of Thessian Sunfish.

"You know how many kig-yar would kill for something like this?" He asked, slightly tapping the glass. "Your own personal fish farm. You ever get in the mood of sea food, just pick out a live one and serve it up however you like."

"That is an aquarium and it's occupants are not for eating," Shepard growled at him. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't consider making my fish tonight's sushi platter."

Zek's grin vanished out of embarrassment, but quickly returned once he cleared his throat.

"Apologies again, I'll just stick to this human fruit I found in your galley," he said humbly, holding up the apple. "What is it by the way? It's delicious."

"It's called an apple," Shepard answered him. "If you ask beforehand next time, maybe I'll give you more."

"Fair enough, it's a deal," Zek conceded. "It's just the taste reminds me of some of the fruits back on our home world. If it's at all possible to acquire some I'll be sure to share them with you. Only seems fair given the circumstances."

Zek walked over to the sofa and dropped himself down onto it. As he continued to eat his apple, Shepard continued to try and keep his emotions in check. Of all people, of all times, why did it have to be Zek right at this moment? More importantly, why was he acting so casual about this entire situation? Was he just trying to put him at ease or something? One thing he was sure of though, he was done playing around and answering questions. It was time for a few of his own.

"Why exactly are you here, Zek?" Shepard asked impatiently. "Did you just come to compare cabin decor and lounge around for no good reason?"

"Not at all, Commander," Zek assured. "I am merely here to talk, Shipmaster to Shipmaster if you will. We didn't really have a lot of time to do that properly yesterday when we were blowing up that ancient eyesore. There's a few things I feel we need to discuss."

Shepard agreed, in a way. Although he wished it wasn't right at this second. Still he was here, of his own accord. It was best to get acquainted with the pirate leader now, rather than later. Although he had a pretty good idea about who Varvok was, Zek was far and away different. He didn't really know much about him besides the scant details Varvok had shared. All he knew was that the Jackal had once been a rising Pirate leader, before being forced into a position of servitude under the Covenant. Given his overt disdain for Covenant religious doctrine, it had not been a great relationship. Then when they broke the terms of their arrangement and got some of his men killed, Zek finally had enough and deserted along with his crew.

It was not exactly an inspiring story, although Shepard sympathized in some way. He had been in a similar situation with Cerberus, although it was a lot easier to break away from them. However, Zek's motives for his actions were a lot more insular. Throw in the fact Shepard was now dealing with an alien species he was unfamiliar with outside of combat and this made things a bit difficult. With the krogan and batarians, he had gotten to know and understand them over a long period of time. Now, it felt like he was back at square one all over again. As if he had traveled back in time to high school when he had first heard about how turians couldn't eat human food and why.

"You could always bring up any concerns when we meet with the other Captains and leaders," Shepard noted, trying at first to gauge the situation he was in. "Any strategy we come up with is going to have to be discussed amongst ourselves after all. Why come to me in private?"

"Because you don't have the same prejudices that Holland and his soldiers have," Zek plainly explained. "And I feel it's best if you clear this with him yourself, rather than me trying to convince him."

It made sense, Shepard suspected he'd end up as the middle man in any dispute or discussion. After all, he hadn't been at war with either side for close to thirty years. Yet he had also earned a modicum of respect with both sides of this alliance, specifically the UNSC. Zek was trying to navigate the murky waters of this arrangement as much as him in that regard. That was both promising and a confirmation of the difficulty Shepard suspected of this task.

"Alright, let's talk then," Shepard said, already forming an idea of what this was about. "I assume this has something to do with your repairs, specifically your slipspace drive."

"Perceptive, Commander," Zek said smiling. "That still remains a chief concern. We've gotten a lot of the Serpent's systems back online. Weapons are a bit tricky, but our shields and hull integrity are solid. The drive is still our main concern. But I do have a solution, a place we can go to stock up on supplies and get repairs."

"I'm guessing there's an issue with this place if you're reluctant to speak to Holland about it directly," Shepard presumed.

Zek nodded, placing his half eaten apple down on the table before he continued.

"It's a port of call that's not friendly to the Covenant," he assured. "However, it's also not exactly the safest of places to visit for outsiders. It's called the Hollow, it's a safe haven for pirates. It would have exactly what we need. Supplies, fuel, a place to fix our ships and perhaps, if we're lucky, weapons for your Marine friends. There's a big black market for human weapons."

"So you want us to go into a den of criminals for you," said Shepard, not particularly liking the suggestion. "Seems a bit more risky than it should be."

"You can't drag my ship around the galaxy forever," Zek informed him plainly. "It's too much of risk for all of us, I think Holland can at least agree to that, you as well. Right now, it's closest real option we have to getting things back in working order. We'll be of a lot more help to each other if my ship isn't leaning on yours, wouldn't you say?"

Shepard had to admit, Zek had a point. If there was a way to get the Jackals' ship back up to full status, why waste time getting that squared away? However, he wasn't going to jump into a dangerous situation without knowing more.

"Who exactly are you going to be getting this drive from? Are they trustworthy?" Shepard asked.

"As long as he doesn't find out I'm working with humans it should be fine," Zek assured. "He'd grow suspicious if that was the case. I'd suggest sending along two of your own people with my group when we dock there. That should ease everyone's minds for the most part."

"I'll still have to talk to Holland about the idea," Shepard responded. "Although I imagine he'll want to get your ship in working order as much as anyone."

"I'll trust you to argue on my behalf," Zek informed him. "But that brings us to the next part of this issue, and it concerns you a bit more. Repairs aren't going to be cheap. I'm low on funds enough already, we need something to barter."

Shepard wasn't surprised by this, he had been expecting it. He knew better than anyone that repairs cost money. Given that the UNSC would probably be reluctant to hand over supplies to Zek's crew, Shepard was his only option for the moment.

"What exactly did you have in mind?" Shepard asked curiously. "Before you suggest weapons, that's out of the question."

"From what I understand you don't have a problem doing that with your fellow humans," Zek noted.

"That's different, they're in a losing war against the Covenant and I have specific limitations on what I give them myself," Shepard replied defensively. "At the same time, the Covenant have been given upgrades to their arsenal to give them an even greater advantage. I'm careful about what I give the Marines, but it's about balancing the scales at this point. I'm not going to hand you weapons to give to a bunch of criminals who could very well turn right around and use them on the UNSC. It's just that simple. Earth needs an edge in this war, outlaws don't."

"Whatever makes you comfortable," Zek shrugged. "Although to be fair, I doubt passing off a few of your pistols to some crooks at the Hollow is comparable to giving the humans schematics to build that big ass laser you got mounted on this thing."

Zek was referring of course to the Thanix Cannon, the Normandy's main gun. In actuality he hadn't really shared much about it, mostly because it was impossible to build without basic understanding of a Reaper's main weapons. They only had it because they had killed Sovereign a little over two years ago and it took about as long to develop the Thanix itself. He was just lucky enough to have woken up in time for the gun to come off the assembly line.

"That's a bit more complicated," Shepard informed the Jackal. "Let's just say most of the more effective technologies I hand out aren't designed to kill people."

"Regardless I wasn't really thinking of guns anyway," Zek admitted. "The guy I need to talk to has enough of those. If it was a matter of guns, I probably wouldn't be talking to you. No, the bird I'm meeting values something else entirely, information."

That was a familiar turn of events, Shepard thought.

"What kind of information?" Shepard asked. "I can't exactly just hand over secrets just to get your ship repaired."

"It doesn't have to be classified stuff," Zek promised. "Just something that he could use. Something that would be worth trading a slipspace drive for."

"What would we have that would interest him?" Shepard asked, confused at the whole notion. "We're from a different dimension, I'm not sure what we'd have that would be of practical use."

"There are a few things that would probably pique his interest," Zek suggested. "Your omni-tools, shields, medical technology, hell even a recipe or two. Ideally, I'd want to give him a technical schematic, something that could make his life easier. But to really figure out what would be of value to him, I'm going to need access to your ship's computers."

Shepard raised and eyebrow at that. It was a pretty forward request to be sure. Access to his ship's computer? He wondered how EDI would feel about that. He wasn't sure how he felt.

"I'd need to at the very least make sure you behaved yourself if I allowed you in there," Shepard cautioned. "EDI would have to log everything you looked at, Miranda would also have to oversee the exchange at all times. She handles most of the sensitive information."

"I'm willing to accept those terms, I'd be insulted if you didn't take those precautions to be honest," Zek replied. "It probably wouldn't take more than an hour or so at the latest. My first mate has a good idea about what to look for."

"I'll have to explain the situation to my crew," Shepard informed him. "But, if I allow this, it's only fair if I ask for something in return."

Zek only seemed to chuckle slightly at the response.

"I knew you were as much a businessman as a soldier, Commander," he warmly complimented, picking up his apple once more. "Rest assured, I never expect freebies this early in any accord. What is your price?"

"That depends I suppose," Shepard admitted. "How much are you willing to commit to this alliance?"

Zek stopped himself in mid bite of his apple, slowly tearing it away from the fruit and chewing on it.

"What do you mean?" He asked cautiously, before finally swallowing.

"I mean, are you going to help us fight against the Covenant?" Shepard asked plainly. "We've never made it clear exactly how this relationship works yet. None of us have. The result is everyone is forming their own ideas on how far this is going. Varvok has made his intentions relatively clear, you haven't."

Zek sat more up right now, placing the apple in his lap. His bony fingers touched each other at the tips and he began to tap them against each other.

"Alright, what do you want me to set straight?" He asked simply.

"The Covenant," Shepard stated once more. "You're clearly not their friend. You don't like them. You've made that evident every chance you got. You didn't hesitate for a second when we told you we were going to blow up Halo. In fact, you wanted in on it. So really, why not take it a step further? Help us bring them down, help the UNSC end this war. It's in your own best interests."

Zek waited a moment, seemingly to ponder the idea. Then he just let out a slight laugh.

"No one wants to see the Covenant collapse more than I do, if only for the pure satisfaction of seeing it crumble," he assured in a slightly more serious tone. "But I just got out of this war, Commander, I'm in no rush to rejoin it. Now, I'll help you and yours get back to your home planet, this Earth of yours. I don't want to be on bad terms with the UNSC, I'd like to forge some kind of working relationship. But I'm not fighting their war for them. I didn't escape the Covenant to become someone else's hired gun."

"I'm not asking for that," Shepard promised him. "I'm asking you to finish what you helped us start. The Covenant is reeling from the loss of Halo and a big portion of the fleet it used to attack Reach. They're wounded, and that always makes someone more dangerous. They're getting closer to Earth, that's the last stand, everyone knows it. And if they win, they're coming after you next."

"I'm fully aware that I'm on their hit list, Commander," Zek replied nonchalantly. "Rest assured, I have every intention of being prepared for the next time I face them. But this fight between them and the humans was never mine. I have my freedom, my crew has their freedom. We're not going back to what it was before."

"It won't be like that," Shepard told him confidently. "I can make sure the UNSC treats you and your crew fairly, like equals."

Zek grinned, apparently recognizing the sincerity of the Commander, but he shook his head.

"I'm sure you'd try, but you can't exactly make guarantees," he said. "You don't control Holland and he can't control his superiors. I'm not comfortable in my current position to be making any contracts like that. Especially when I get the feeling I'm not entirely appreciated by the people who I'd be providing my services to."

"You could help change their minds," Shepard informed him earnestly. "They're suspicious for now, I give you that. But they're not closed off to the idea either, I know it. We wouldn't be here if they were. Besides, how can you expect them to trust you if you can't do the same?"

"I don't trust many people, Commander," Zek explained succinctly. "I can't afford too much of it in my profession. The UNSC has to earn it, same as Varvok, same as you. Maybe if they start giving me and my men credit for helping to save their lives it would be a start. So far, as I understand it, they've been rather belligerent about the whole ordeal."

"You were trying to kill some of them just a few days ago," Shepard reminded him.

"As if any of that was personal," Zek huffed. "It was business, Shepard. You killed some of my men, I don't hold any ill will towards you for it. My crew had their own objective that was opposing to your own goals. Like any good business venture, combat carries certain risks. You came out the better man in the end and I admire you for that if nothing else. If the UNSC would just step back a bit, they'd see that fact for themselves."

Shepard supposed he appreciated that Zek held no grudge against him. Why would he though? If it had been up to him, he probably wouldn't have even bee on Halo in the first place. He put all the blame, it seemed, on the Covenant for placing him into a crappy contract. It looked like he was trying to avoid getting into an equally terrible business arrangement concerning the UNSC. But the explanation did create a few new questions in Shepard's mind.

"What about the marks on your armor though?" He asked the Jackal. "If it was nothing personal, why the kill count?"

Zek looked down at his armor himself, contemplating it's meaning.

"To be honest, it's a bit complicated," he admitted. "It started as a bit of a pastime at first, just something to do. Over the years though, I think I ended up just doing it for release. Something to shake off the anger. Like, trying to convince myself every kill I had earned for myself, not the Covenant. That I was doing this for myself, not them. I'm not sure I ever truly believed that."

Zek looked up, a grim expression on his face as did.

"I never had a great hatred for humans, Shepard," he stated. "I'll admit I rarely thought of them. Most of the time I just saw them as things in the way. Things that had to be removed so I could go back to the ship for the day. That sounds harsh perhaps, but it's how I felt. I just stopped seeing them as anything but a job I had to do for the day. That's as far as the Covenant influence got into my head though."

It wasn't exactly a comforting answer, but at least it felt more earnest a response than anything else. But as soon as he was done, Zek switched gears again, speaking in a slightly less personal manner.

"Frankly, I don't understand how if I can be willing to leave that behind, the humans can't," Zek explained once more. "I mean, I keep hearing things about this word they use for us. Jackal, what is a jackal anyway? What does that mean?"

Shepard wondered how he should approach that answer. He didn't want to lie, but he also didn't want to anger Zek. Then again, if he didn't hold a grudge for him killing some of his people, why would he get angry at the Marines for using what could amount to a slur?

"It's an animal back on Earth, a kind of canine," he explained. "It's a scavenger, eats dead corpses. It's sometimes associated with deviousness and treachery."

Zek looked on for a moment, seemingly to absorb to information. Then, suddenly, he burst out laughing.

"How incredibly appropriate," he stated. "Your Marines are almost as perceptive as you."

He continued to chuckle warmly as he bit into his apple once more. Shepard was at least relieved to know he didn't have to worry about offending him. However, he did want to get back to the subject at hand.

"If you're not willing to join the fight, then what are you willing to offer in exchange for a look into my computers?" He asked once more.

"I have a few ideas of what I could provide to the UNSC that don't involve fighting their little war," Zek assured, mouth still slightly full before he swallowed the apple in his mouth. "Besides my knowledge of the inner workings for the Covenant, I could share some of my plasma weaponry, specifically my schematics for the plasma torpedoes. And considering how slow their ships are, my engineer crew could assist in helping them with a greater understanding of slipspace. Anything more I'd rather wait until I'm in a better bargaining position. Namely, my ship not being crippled."

"Very well," Shepard stated. "I'm sure Holland would appreciate the assistance in both areas, as would I."

"Then we have a deal," Zek declared standing up from the sofa. "I get a look at your computers, I give your people specs to make their own shipboard plasma weapons down the line. Along with making your ships faster if possible."

Zek stretched out his hand for Shepard to shake. As they sealed the deal though, the door to the cabin suddenly slid open. Tali rushed inside, smoothing out her hood as she did.

"Sorry if I'm late, Shepard," she said. "It took longer to round up the others than I-"

She then noticed that Zek was in the room with them. The Jackal took a bite from his apple as he stared at the quarian. Tali herself was a bit flustered.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there, Zek," Tali awkwardly apologized. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be here."

"He was just leaving, Tali," Shepard assured her. "We were just discussing some things."

"Yes, pay me no mind," Zek replied slinking towards the exit. "I really should be going anyway. Things to do and all that."

Zek tossed the remains of his apple into a small trash bin and made a hasty retreat towards the door.

"Thank you for your time, Commander," Zek informed him. "This was a most productive meeting. I look forward to speaking to you again in time. Have a good day, you too Ms. Zorah."

Zek stepped out the door and let it shut behind him. Shepard let out a long sigh as Tali approached him.

"What was that about?" She asked.

"Nothing," Shepard answered in a rather tired voice. "Just a captain to captain meeting. I'll explain it to you later. I don't want to kill the mood more than it already has been."

Tali's eyes beamed, obviously grinning beneath her face mask. She placed her arms behind her and slightly swayed about as she spoke.

"As long as you turn on the music in the next five seconds the mood will be fairly preserved, Wade," she told him, urging him on slightly.

Shepard quickly moved over to the player on his desk. He'd put the eccentric pirate out his mind for now. He had far more important things to do right now after all.

* * *

"This is pointless," Varvok growled. "I've told you all before, Balak shared little with me concerning his overall plans. Any possible contingencies are beyond my knowledge as well."

"I believe you," Lawson informed him. "However, I'd still like to know more about his alliance with the Covenant and their operations."

Varvok was no less incensed than before, despite the human woman's assurances. He suspected they were going to ask more questions sooner or later, he just saw no reason for it. He had given them everything, more or less, that he felt was important. Now he was in a room, with Miranda Lawson staring him down from one end of the table and Spartan woman in teal blue armor watching over him as well. It felt less like an interview and more like an interrogation.

"I agreed to this because I felt you had something important to discuss," he explained. "Not more questions. I have given you all I can."

"The fact remains though, we have questions about more than just your former leader, Balak," Miranda replied. "It's about the Covenant and their interest in our home dimension. You're the highest ranking person on hand that can tell us about that."

"Zek or Retz would probably know more," Varvok huffed.

"They aren't from your side of the wormhole," the blue spartan, who had been introduced to him as Noble Two, declared. "Where, as we understand, the Covenant have their own agenda, as you are well aware now."

He was aware, it was why he was here in the first place, suffering the indignity of working with humans. Of course, he no one to blame but himself for that, it was his idea in the first place. Granted, he had no choice, not after being betrayed by Balak, his men used as barter for guns against an unstoppable enemy. It was either join with Shepard or die pointlessly.

That didn't make getting questioned by these two any less demeaning.

"I don't need to be reminded," Varvok snorted back.

"The Covenant are doing something back home," Miranda continued. "Something that according to our friend we're in contact with is using up a ton of resources. It feeds back into their war effort here and could mean something terrible for everyone in our universe. That includes your own people."

"Balak barely knew what they were looking for," Varvok exclaimed. "The Covenant aren't exactly open about every little detail. All I know is that they had Balak organize a number of research teams to study something. Mostly experts in xeno-archaeology, difficult to find in the Hegemony admittedly."

At that moment, Noble Two approached the table, standing right next to him.

"Do you have any idea what they were researching?" She asked. "Any idea at all?"

"Balak never told me, no one did," Varvok grumbled. "But I do recall him issuing a few platoons here and there to act as escort to some covert expeditions outside Hegemony space. I never got assigned to one and never really gave them much thought. I do remember that they rarely found anything and came back empty handed constantly. False leads, I suppose. Whatever they were looking for they didn't find it."

"From the sound of it, things have changed," Miranda told him. "They're pushing up their schedules, sending out more teams. We surmise that all the data for their research has to come from here. We already know the Covenant attacked Reach primarily to acquire ancient knowledge buried beneath the planet. Your people were stationed there, you were assisting in that task in some capacity. Did they tell you anything about what they were looking for?"

Varvok, as annoyed as he was, tried to think back. The attack on Reach felt like another life at this point, when he still believed in what he had been doing. He wasn't with the initial force sent there, he was being held back with the rest of the Covenant fleet until further notice. He arrived with the main force, so he was there only for the tail end of the fight.

He did keep himself apprised on the situation, how the Covenant's invasion was a lot slower than one would expect from them. He asked why, they explained the humans could be dealt with later. That there were other duties to attend to on the planet. His men explained a few groups had been sent to outlying regions, more or less to secure areas around potential excavation sites. Keep the humans away, let the Covenant get what they wanted.

He didn't know exactly what they were looking for, although it had to be important if it delayed the wholesale glassing of the planet. Obviously Forerunner, like Halo. It was the only explanation.

"All I know is that the Covenant were less vicious whenever they felt the treasures of their Gods were involved," he relented. "More cautious, less prone to outright destruction. What they were searching for then is a mystery to me. If they are repeating the process though, it seems a bit strange to let my people do their dirty work in this instance."

"Well if they are discovered too soon, the whole alliance will be exposed," Miranda reminded him.

"Yes, and then we'd all be a target," Varvok agreed. "But, they don't seem like the type who would let a batarian or any non-believer get close to the artifacts themselves. In my experience, we were there to assist, never to do the actual acquiring of anything."

Miranda nodded her head at this.

"That would fit with what Liara said she overheard," she said, looking to Noble Two.

"If it's that important to them it makes sense," the Spartan agreed. "The Covenant are using this Hegemony of yours as a tool. They wouldn't risk letting whatever it is their searching for fall into the hands of people they want to eventually subjugate."

"The good news is that means they're more than likely trying to zero in on whatever these artifacts are," Varvok quickly interjected. "For now, Balak is gathering additional data, these expeditions are more about information than anything else. When the Covenant do find what they're looking for, they'll go after it themselves. Until then, your friend has time."

Miranda nodded in agreement and stood up.

"Well, at least we can rest assured we kept the knowledge buried on Reach out of their hands," Miranda stated. "Better than nothing. Liara will be happy to know she has some extra time, that as long as the Covenant aren't on the move they are just grasping at straws."

"I'd still like to know if they were after anything else on Reach," Noble Two asked. "Or if they have other similar expeditions ongoing in this universe. If it's so important they'll devote their main efforts in your dimension to acquiring it, who's to say the search is isolated to just there?"

"I wouldn't assume either," Varvok stated, rising as well. "If they were looking for other relics or whatever on Reach I don't know. We were there to act as a defensive line more or less, I can't be certain of where they were looking precisely. There were a few of my men on another continent, but it's hard to say if they achieved any success. We were all pulled out to chase after you."

That note earned him a bit of a glare, but it didn't last long. Hopefully they understood it was simply a statement of fact and had just decided to let it go. He didn't really want to be here any longer.

"I suppose it doesn't matter now, Reach is most certainly glassed by now," Miranda acknowledged. "Any evidence we could uncover about what happened is long gone. Thank you for your time, Varvok, if you remember anything else..."

"If I do, I'll send it to your ship," the batarian interrupted her. "I don't care for being hauled off into these 'meetings', such as they are. I have my own soldiers to see to. Good day, both of you."

He left, not shy to show his displeasure with this whole business. He supposed he didn't blame them for wanting to know these things, but it still felt like so much for so little. Who cared what the Covenant were searching for? They couldn't stop it, not while they were trapped here. If Shepard was truly concerned with it, then he should simply devise a way to blast through the blockade and get back.

He knew that would not happen though, for many reasons, chief among them the fact he wanted to help his fellow humans. Also the wormhole being unstable made any travel through it from this side risky. He didn't care for the former reason, but the latter was a sufficient one. In any case, Varvok also recognized that disrupting the Covenant efforts here would destabilize the alliance back home. If that crumbled, his people would escape the inevitable fate of subjugation. A fate Balak and the rest of his leaders were marching them into, willingly or unwittingly. It didn't matter in either case, it needed to be stopped. He couldn't do that by getting carted off to interrogation constantly.

He was eager to put some distance between him and the humans. Let them sort this little artifact hunt out for themselves. Unless it led to a method of destroying the Covenant, he didn't care. There was a war to win, let the Covenant waste time searching for trinkets if they wanted. That just gave them more time to hit them hard while they were distracted.

Although, in the back of his mind, considering what Halo had been uncovered as, not to mention what it held, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't concerned at all. No, he hoped the Covenant didn't find anything. That it was a fruitless chase on their part. If it wasn't, who could say how much trouble they really were in?

* * *

Shepard approached the door to Holland's makeshift office on the hijacked Corvette. As he approached the door, it opened and out stepped a man with short-cropped red hair with a Lieutenant insignia on his uniform. He saluted Shepard once he noticed him and then stretched out his hand to greet him.

"Commander Shepard, wasn't expecting to see you," he said formally. "We haven't been formally introduced. My name Elias Haverson, Holland has placed me in charge of intelligence and internal security for our trip home."

"Good to meet you, Haverson," Shepard said shaking his hand. "I trust the Colonel is in. I have to talk to him about some things."

"Of course, sir," Haverson assured. "I just finished with him now. Although he's still trying to adjust to this situation, as we all are. Thankfully, I think some of his concerns are alleviated. The deserters' actions so far are in keeping with the accord you helped create. Hopefully it keeps that way. We don't want any trouble."

Shepard nodded in agreement.

"I have to talk to him about Zek myself," he said.

Haverson raised an eyebrow.

"The leader of the Jackals," Shepard clarified.

"Oh, yes," Haverson said somewhat flustered. "Sorry, most of those aliens look the same to me. The only other time I've encountered the species is being shot at by them. At the very least, trusting them so far has been a lot more successful than any of us thought. The fact so many of us escaped Halo is proof of that."

"Where exactly were you stationed on Halo?" Shepard asked. "I didn't see you at Alpha Base."

"I was mostly sequestered off to tactical," Haverson explained. "When I wasn't, I was following Holland's unit around with a small Marine detachment. When they got posted to guarding the Control Room on the ring I had to go. Had to take readings, gather intel. Standing orders from ONI is to uncover all we can of Forerunner tech if we run across it."

Shepard was taken aback by Haverson's declaration, unnerved by the revelation of who he had been speaking with.

"You're ONI?" He asked cautiously.

Haverson rubbed the side of his neck, seemingly embarrassed.

"Oh, forgot, you have not had the best relationship with our department," Haverson recalled as he flushed red. "Try to understand, we're not all like Ackerson. The job just tends to attract a lot of less than savory people. I was assigned to the _Autumn_ as a liaison, back when it was supposed to be the lead ship for Operation: Red Flag. Before Reach was attacked anyway."

"So long as you don't try to kidnap my crew we should get along fine," Shepard assured him, joking only slightly. "I guess I can see why Holland put you in charge of security and intelligence then, given your credentials."

"Truthfully it's a bit daunting to be thrust into such a high position," Haverson admitted. "But so many of the other officers aren't with us, so I guess I got the luck of the draw."

Haverson fumbled slightly, sighing half-heartedly as he continued.

"If you call most of your colleagues being killed lucky, I suppose," he said sadly. He quickly straightened, speaking more confidently. "However, thanks to you, many more survived. Your skills as a diplomat almost rival your abilities as a soldier, Commander. I'm not sure anyone else in the UNSC would've taken the risk you did when the batarian and Zek approached you."

"I take it you approve of the alliance then?" Shepard asked.

"To a degree," Haverson concurred. "I was one of the people with Holland who argued to take the offer. I was shocked as anyone when the ODSTs mutinied. Major Silva's intentions were good, but misguided in my perspective. He was too fearful and mistrusting, too concerned with making a name for himself. Perhaps Holland's preference towards the Spartans further clouded his otherwise expert judgment. Whatever reason, I'm just thankful the insurrection didn't cost us too many of the ODSTs, Lieutenant McKay especially. We're going to need them in the fight ahead. Hopefully the rest can be convinced of the opportunity of the situation."

"Opportunity?" Shepard asked, slightly curious by the choice of words.

"Of course, sir," Haverson said, beginning to elaborate. "We've rarely had the chance to observe the Jackals, or kig-yar as they call themselves, in a non-hostile environment. All our knowledge of the Covenant species is second-hand or pieced together. This is the first real chance we've been given to observe the culture and behavior of one of the species in such a manner. It's a potential intel gold mine, Commander. ONI would be very interested in learning more about the race that the Covies have assigned as their premiere assassins and saboteurs. We'll be able to see their tactics up close, learn about them first-hand and see exactly what makes them tick. It will give us an edge against the Jackals still among the Covenant, if nothing else."

Shepard supposed he understood the reasoning. He had hoped though that Haverson felt the alliance would more beneficial in the long term, that Zek and his pirates could help them fight the war. It seemed though he just saw them as a potential asset that could be used against the Covenant. Apparently, Zek wasn't the only one hesitant to bring the Jackals into the UNSC war effort either. Regardless, it was still better than them being seen unwanted vagabonds they had to deal with for now. Despite his reasoning, if Haverson was at least open to the idea of the alliance then maybe there was a chance he could build upon that.

"Speaking of the Jackals, do you have any idea how far along their repairs are coming?" Haverson asked.

"That's actually part of what I want to talk to Holland about," Shepard explained. "They still need a replacement for their broken Slipspace drive. They have a place they can get it, but there are some complications."

"I'm sure the Colonel will want to hear it then," Haverson said, stepping aside. "I imagine none of us wants to be towing the _Fallen Serpent_ around the galaxy for however long it takes to get back to Earth. The sooner they're able to operate under their own power, the better off everyone in this makeshift fleet of sorts will be. It was a pleasure meeting you, sir. Sorry for keeping you."

Shepard saluted in return and let Haverson go about his duties. Hopefully speaking with Holland would go as smoothly. He already asked a lot of the Colonel after all, placing his trust in enemies. This would be something else altogether.

* * *

"Shepard is courting a non-human?" Retz asked, slightly surprised at the information.

"The quarian Tali, to be precise," Zek elaborated. "I know, not what I expected either. I honestly thought he'd go for the female with the black hair and firm backside myself. I figure that's what humans are into."

"Are you sure about this?" Retz asked. "I mean, it's not like they did anything in front of you."

"They had arranged a rendezvous alone together and it didn't sound like it was the first time," Zek explained. "Trust me, they're seeing each other. Hell, he's probably seen what she looks like under that envirosuit for all we know."

Retz gave the information some thought, pondering exactly what a quarian even looked like without the suit for a brief moment. Then he came back to the matter at hand.

"What exactly do we do with this?" He asked Zek cautiously. "I mean, your gut is hardly evidence of anything. You're not suggesting we..."

"What? Blackmail a potential business partner? You know me better than that, Retz," Zek replied, chuckling slightly. "The man would probably side with the UNSC more if I tried or reveal the affair to take away my influence. What's Holland gonna do if he finds out anyway? Confine him to quarters for making love to a xeno? No, we're going to use this in another way. To get on the Commander's good side."

Retz nodded, instantly getting the idea his friend was proposing.

"You mean help them get more alone time, keep their secret for them if necessary, give Shepard gifts to give to her we'd think she'd like or vice versa?" He asked, his thoughts swirling a mile a minute. "It's a decent idea I suppose. Potentially they'd owe us some favors, perhaps even be willing to side with us more often."

"Well we want him to be our confidant don't we?" Zek responded amiably. "As the situation is now, I imagine a few of our meetings with the UNSC are going to come to a vote more often than not. Why not push the odds in our favor a bit? Show Shepard we're willing to help him out with his lady friend, probably other things too. We show him how valuable we are and this partnership is assured."

"So long as he doesn't take it the wrong way," Retz warned. "I'd be careful about being too on the nose with this. He could mistake it for us actually trying to force him into our pocket rather than become a mutual business partner as you hope."

"Don't be too concerned," Zek assured him, walking him down the corridor. "I told you how well the talk went. He has his own idealistic agenda, sure. But we can work with him. He is a reasonable human, one willing to hear other people out even if they don't agree. He's willing to negotiate."

"He also doesn't sound like he's willing to compromise everything," Retz cautioned. "You can only push him so far in a certain direction. He ultimately wants us to commit to the UNSC and their side of the war."

"And eventually he will see we are more valuable to the war effort as a non-partisan entity," Zek assured. "We'll have a client and a contract that is more favorable. You'll see, we'll convince Shepard, he'll see things our way. In the meantime, we have other business to attend to. If we are going to the Hollow, we need to be ready."

Retz was more than ready. He brought out a small datapad with a long list of items. He scrolled through them casually as he spoke.

"Contacts with the underground are difficult right now, but I've put out some feelers," he began plainly. "I have to be careful, we don't want to alert the Covenant after all. I have a general idea of a few things to look for that might be suitable bartering material. Although I would prefer it if we had more surplus to trade."

"We need to make due sadly," Zek reminded him, he then switched topics back to the matter at hand. "Now you'll have access to most systems, just not weapons and tactical. However, see about looking outside the barter list, things for ourselves if possible. Our ship could use some upgrades of our own."

"I'll see if there's anything in the ancillary files," Retz promised. "But if they're watching me it's not like I can just hack into any file at will. It will need to be low key level."

"I'm not asking for that, I'm just saying deep dive into the areas you do have access to," Zek clarified. "Just find something we can use that Shepard probably won't mind us taking a look at. We can smooth out the details later and get authorization then."

Retz sighed nodding lightly.

"I'm not particularly happy with being spied on while I work either way," he said. "I'm not comfortable with peering eyes."

"Well, what can I tell ya?" Zek asked flustered. "We're stuck with these humans and we gotta play by their rules. At least, within the boundaries of their rules. We can skirt them a little, just don't push'em and we'll be fine."

"Alright, I'll contact the _Normandy_ for a shuttle," Retz sighed. "Once I'm aboard I'll get to work as soon as I'm able. Hopefully this whole endeavor isn't a bust."

"They're from another dimension, Retz," Zek reminded him with a confident grin. "You'll find something cool. It's inevitable. You have to be at least a little curious to learn about them."

Retz gave his friend's words some thought.

"Well, I do kind of want to know more about these apples," Retz admitted. "They do indeed sound delicious. Who knows, maybe their cook will share some recipes."

"Here's hoping," Zek concurred. "I'm kinda getting tired of stew every night. Especially since we ran out of Salted Skungeback guts. Lost a whole bunch of flavor without it."

* * *

Holland sat in silence for a few moments. Shepard wasn't sure what the man was thinking, but he imagined he had only added to myriad of issues the Colonel was dealing with. To his credit, he hadn't told the Commander "No" outright the second he said he was here on Zek's behalf. He probably was considering it now though after being told that the Jackal wanted to go to a Pirate Den for repairs.

"I don't suppose we have many options," he finally said.

"Not that I can see," Shepard admitted. "Unless you want to try giving them the Slipspace Generator we've been working on since before Reach fell."

"I would not lose all that time and effort trying to make UNSC ships compete with the Covenant just to get some pirate ship moving again," the Colonel answered firmly. "Besides, it wouldn't solve the supply problem anyway. If we had cryo tubes, we could reduce that by putting some of the men in stasis. Instead, we're back to square one when it comes to long term space travel. Not ideal."

Holland got up from his makeshift desk, which was really just some sheet metal on top of a few empty ammo crates, and looked towards a flag he had hung in the corner. It bore the symbol of the UNSC, the planet Earth with an eagle overlooking it proudly.

"You know, when this war started, I didn't think I'd be in a position like this," he admitted. "The Army is supposed to defend Colony worlds, we're not made for Space life. Now I'm the highest ranking officer still alive and in charge of every human man and woman in this tiny fleet if you will. Not what I signed on for."

"You regretting following us aboard the _Autumn_?" Shepard asked jovially.

"Not for a second," Holland assured. "But the ordeal is taking it's toll. That's why I'm looking to every officer below me to help me out. I'm not too proud to admit I'm out my depth here. You're no exception, Shepard, I value your input as much as Noble Two or Haverson or anyone's. We're in a precarious situation and we need to rely on each other."

Shepard sensed a "but" or something similar about the come. He kept quiet though, the Colonel needed to get this all off his chest obviously. Best to let him.

"The fact is, this request Zek is making," Holland explained, turning back to Shepard. "It's a bit of a concern. This Hollow sounds less than amiable towards humans and the occupants are worse than hostile, they are unknown. Too many uncertainties for my liking."

"Is that a no, sir?" Shepard asked cautiously.

"I didn't say that," Holland replied with a sigh. "It's just something that makes me worried. We barely know these pirates we're stuck with. This Hollow is full of more who we know even less about. But, we need the resupply. Upgrades to this Corvette similar to the _Serpent's_ would also be appreciated. I'd like the situation more if so much of it wasn't in the hands of Zek."

Shepard understood the concern, the Pirate leader was a bit of a wildcard after all. He wasn't sure he could guarantee much of anything himself to alleviate those fears. After all, he barely knew Zek. The Jackal may have spoken to him like they were old friends, but Shepard would be lying if he claimed to fully trust him. However, it wasn't entirely true it was all up to Zek.

"My own people will be going along with him if we decide to pay the Hollow a visit," Shepard reminded him. "They can make sure things don't get out of hand. We can even keep our own ships out of range while the _Serpent_ goes in for repairs. If we remain on alert, we should be able to handle any situation that might arise."

"Knowing your crew will be keeping an eye on the operation is the only reason I'm considering going along with this," Holland informed him. "I trust their judgment, or at least their ability to get us out of any mess we step in. Since you can't send any of your human crew with Zek on this, I trust Garrus will be among the team sent ground side?"

"Yes, his position in C-SEC and later as a vigilante has made him adept at circumnavigating the type of people I suspect are in the Hollow," Shepard answered diligently. "If something comes up, he should be able to handle it."

Holland gave a nod of approval and returned to his desk.

"If he weren't an alien Mr. Vakarian would probably be the finest the UNSC soldier alive," he declared. "He's proven that routinely since you arrived on Reach. Hell, if it weren't for him, we probably wouldn't have gotten as many people off of Halo as we did. I can see why you trust him so much."

Shepard appreciated the praise of his friend and made a mental note to pass it on to Garrus. He did wonder why Holland was suddenly talking about this though. Then, he made it clear.

"Of course, we can't exactly put the credit towards our survival on any one person or xeno," Holland admitted. "The funeral service today made that clear. We're alive because a splinter group of the enemy, Jackals of all things, and their batarian friends, looked past their antagonism and tried to work with us."

"Still trying to process that I guess," Shepard surmised, doing his best to sound respectful.

"I won't lie, Shepard, this whole situation is making me question a few things," the Colonel relented wistfully. "I'm not saying I trust these pirates or Varvok's batarians, but they have surprised me so far. Almost as much as you have. Part of me hopes they continue that trend, but after twenty-seven years of seeing every Covie as an enemy... well, it's hard to move past that."

Shepard nodded in agreement. He had been fighting this war for considerably less time, but he knew exactly how Holland felt. He had been wary of Legion when he first showed up. He was still wary of Varvok and his men. However, like Holland, he had to hope they'd keep surprising him.

"You know where I'm from we've gotten used to working alongside other races," he reminded the Colonel. "My Earth wasn't on the best of terms with a few of them from the start. But at some point, you have to be willing to move forward with them. It's not going to be an easy process though, that I will grant you."

"I suppose the war has to end at some point," Holland concurred. "Until yesterday though, I thought it would mean wiping out the Covenant. That peace was unlikely. Now, after this, one has to wonder if these pirates are the only unsatisfied group in the Covenant."

"There have to be more," Shepard assured him. "It isn't a union created on mutual respect or cooperation. It's built on lies, subjugation and threat of reprisals. No system like that can endure. Maybe Zek and his pirates are just the first step."

"I'd like to think that, Shepard, I really would," Holland replied. "But the Covenant descending into civil war still sounds like a very distant possibility at the moment. More importantly, it doesn't guarantee anything long term. Zek doesn't sound interested in switching sides so much as making an arrangement with people who are the enemies of his enemies. It's not much to base an alliance on."

"No, but it's a start," Shepard suggested. "It's worth at least trying to bring them onto your side. Earth needs all the help it can get right now."

Holland sighed, looking once again deep in thought. It took awhile for him to digest it all. Eventually though he sighed, clearly tired of thinking.

"Let's just get this business with their slipspace drive sorted first," he said at last. "Then we can see about making this alliance of ours more than the strange bedfellow situation we're currently in."

Shepard grinned at that, a sign of progress. Holland was at least open to the idea, that much he knew now. Zek was still a bit of an obstacle, but maybe there was common ground after all. He would've left the office happy with the knowledge that things were looking up. Until a ship wide alarm sounded. Holland was soon contacted by the familiar voice of Haverson.

"Sir, we just got a big contact ping in our sector and moving on a patrol pattern in our general direction," he said frantically. "I don't think it's friendly."

"Contact the other officers and have them meet me on the Command Deck," Holland ordered.

"Does that include Shipmaster Zek and Lieutenant Commander Varvok, sir?" Haverson asked.

"Of course it does," Holland answered back. "Have them shuttle over to our ship at once. We need to work out a strategy to deal with whatever this enemy ship is before it gets in range."

"At once, sir," Haverson stated dutifully.

Holland then looked to Shepard.

"Well, looks like the Hollow will have to wait, Commander," he declared. "We're going to be testing out this alliance of ours sooner than we thought."

Shepard nodded in agreement and followed Holland out the door. He supposed this was going to come sooner or later. It was time to see how this little fleet of theirs held out under fire.

* * *

AN: I officially welcome everyone to this story and the first official chapter. I hope this has gotten everyone sufficiently interested in future events. This is largely set-up, but it's important to establish where things are currently. Also I just really wanted to have Zek and Shepard talk one on one, that was a fun scene. When you have time, do check the profile for a link to my blog concerning this story for further background information and thoughts on this chapter. Also, included in those notes will be something I suspect a few people have been wondering about for awhile, the face of Wade Shepard. I gave a decent description when I started, but now you should have a more direct picture to place to his words. Do leave a review and I'll see you back here in a week or so for the next chapter.


	3. Rogue Justice

**Chapter Two: Rogue Justice**

 _Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats_

 _-H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series_

It took awhile for all the relevant faces to cram themselves into the briefing room. The Master Chief quickly plugged Cortana into the holoboard when he arrived. She was starting to pull up relevant data in preparation for meeting when Zek and Retz walked in. The image of the gas giant and it's asteroid belt hung in the air, with two clustered dots on one side and a large third blip on the other side of the planet. There was little doubt in anyone minds what said blip was.

"It's the Covenant, right?" Zek asked inquisitively. "They have one of their hounds sniffing for us."

"We all suspected they'd track us down sooner or later," Holland stated. "I would've preferred later myself. Cortana, do you have an ID on what we're facing?"

"Long range scanners don't give me a total picture, but I have an idea of what we're facing," the AI replied.

She had the hologram magnify the larger dot. A clear three dimensional image came into view, that of a large Covenant ship. Retz was the first to identify the class aloud.

"How appropriate, an Assault Carrier," he huffed. "Honestly, I'd be insulted if it was anything less given the stunt we just pulled."

"Preliminary probing of their battlenet has given me a registry on it," Cortana continued. " _Ascendant Justice_ , part of the fleet that we encountered over Halo. Apparently, some of their ships survived the explosion, which explains how they've found us so quick. They don't seem to have a precise fix on our location though, but that is likely to change soon."

Holland eyed the hologram with a grimace, stroking his chin in thought.

"These things are planet killers," he reminded everyone. "We won't last long in a firefight with it in our current state. We need to consider some options here."

"I suggest evasive action," Haverson spoke up readily. "Hiding in the asteroid belt around the planet or perhaps even within the atmosphere of the gas giant itself could shield us from their sensors. We wait for them to pass and then engage slipspace out of the system."

Zek suddenly huffed rather abrasively, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. As they stared at him and Retz, the Jackal just looked with a cocky grin.

"Sounds a bit unlike you humans," he said. "Hiding I mean. In this case it's just downright wasteful though."

"I'm not sure I follow, Shipmaster Zek," Haverson said with a slight growl. "What do you mean wasteful?"

"I'm just saying, you're passing up a golden opportunity here," the pirate answered jovially. "That Carrier is alone, it's strayed from it's usual escort. We know it's position and it's still searching for us. I say, we take the offer laid out before us. Instead of hiding, we should board the carrier and take it for ourselves."

The annoyed look on everyone's faces soon turned to one of abject apathy if not outright disapproval.

"That hardly sounds like a viable course of action," Noble Two noted aloud.

"It is a bit excessive," Varvok concurred with a growl.

"It's downright unnecessary," Haverson declared. "We don't need another ship. We have three of them at this point."

"One of them is ours," Retz corrected him. "We're just loaning it out to some of your people."

Haverson shook his head in frustration at the comment.

"Whatever, we still don't need another ship, let alone a carrier," he said sternly. "It's a fight we don't need right now."

"I'd argue it is," Zek shot back with a confident steely glare. "True, we could hide from it's sensors. It would just pass right by with nary a thought. But it's just going to follow us, and next time it will have friends. Their Shipmaster has made a mistake, probably thinking we're weak. We hit him now, when he thinks we're down, we can grab the ship right out from under him."

"And why would we want to do that in the first place?" Noble Two asked. "You admit it yourself, it's just one ship out of who knows how many survivors from your former fleet."

"I take offense to that," Zek replied, sounding only slightly affronted. "I was never part of their fleet. Not in my mind."

Retz coughed slightly, getting his friend back on track.

"I think what Zek is trying to say is that we gain more from taking the risk and trying to capture the Carrier for ourselves," he explained. "Assault Carriers aren't nearly as big as their Super cousins, but they're built to invade planets and as a result are often used as roving operation stations in low orbit during campaigns."

"We're well aware of Covenant strategies," Holland informed him gruffly. "Make your point, please."

"The ship has ample fuel stores," Zek explained. "A Battlecruiser can recharge their fuel cells with relative ease. A corvette, like ours can dock with the lower intership airlocks for long range slipspace travel and ease of exchange of troops and supplies. That thing is more than just an assault craft, it's floating treasure chest full of loot. Loot, my dear fellows, we can use."

Haverson reached up and started rubbing the bridge of his nose, sighing as he did.

"You want us to take over a carrier and use it as a mothership?" He asked in disbelief. "What is this? Some kind of hokey sci-fi vid?"

"All I'm saying is it's a lot more use to us than you realize," Zek said, trying to elaborate. "The Covenant is going to find us again. It's going to become a nuisance. We handled ourselves well against a whole fleet, but only because they didn't want to risk shooting each other. Two Corvettes and a tiny frigate ain't going to do much against a proper enemy force in a real fight. No offense, Commander Shepard."

"None taken," Shepard told him. "But I'm still with Haverson and Noble Two on this, it seems like a bit of a risk we don't need to take."

"But think of the rewards," Retz suggested. "This _Ascendant Justice_ is probably loaded with weapons and material. We could use some of that to trade or better arm ourselves if we so choose. Point is we could use the extra barter, because there's not many people out here who are going to accept human credits. Plus, we can all save on fuel considerably, we will only need to fly one ship long distances once our Corvettes are attached to the docking clamps. And the _Normandy_ can easily land in the hangar bay. It's huge after all, capable of holding quite a few human frigates if it so chose. Runs the whole length of the ship actually with several doors in and out. Plus a second hangar bay near the stern."

"And like I said, in a real battle we'd have some extra big guns," Zek declared jovially. "That Carrier is a killing machine! We could go toe to toe with any Covenant ship tracking us. Better odds at least than what we have now."

Suddenly the room's attitude started to shift as the various eyes within all look to one another. The idea was starting to show merit at least. However, Haverson still kept his skeptical outlook.

"The value of taking the ship I can see," he admitted. "The problem is, we're not equipped for this. We just barely managed to take this vessel."

"The _Crusty Chorka_ ," Zek informed him.

Haverson raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, a grimace growing across his face the instant Zek finished speaking.

"You're renaming the ship... that?" Haverson asked rather deadpan.

Zek nodded enthusiastically. All Holland could do was sigh in mild annoyance.

"We also considered _Surly Eel_ and _Belching Krava_ ," Retz interjected. "They were our other finalists the crew decided on."

"What's a Krava?" Varvok asked curiously.

"It's a legendary tentacled monster with a swirling maw of teeth," Retz explained. "I admit, the crew was still kinda drunk when we put things to a vote about an hour ago, but that's just how democracy works and it would be rather unfair of us to disregard-"

"Let's stay on subject," Haverson asked, clearly growing more frustrated by the syllable. "We can't take a carrier. It's just not possible with our current resources."

"Well what about those two?" Zek asked, pointing casually to both the Master Chief and Noble Two. "You have four of them last I checked."

Everyone's eyes turned to both Noble Two and then Master Chief. For a moment, he looked around, trying to think of what to say. Eventually, he decided on stating the facts.

"I have led Spartans on similar missions," he said plainly. "At least a four man team every time with little backup. Although to be fair, most of the time the mission called for us to destroy the Carrier."

"My team never had as much experience assaulting and taking over Covenant ships," Noble Two added. "At least nothing this big. We have, however, been relatively successful in similar situations, with considerably less resources at our disposal."

"We do have more manpower in this case," Shepard considered aloud. "The ODSTs, Varvok's people, my own crew. That's not even mentioning the Army Troopers and Marines. It's still a risk, I won't lie, but we do have some advantages."

With Shepard actually considering the plan as viable, even Haverson started to give the idea more thought. The doubt was only just melting though, not evaporating.

"If we had a way to even the odds a bit," he stated. "Some way to decrease their numbers. The carrier is going to have a lot of Covenant on it. Taking it could very well be a slog for any assault force we send. We'd need some kind of edge."

"I may have a solution," Cortana said meekly, raising her digital hand. "It's not a total game changer, but it might push the odds in our favor."

"Well don't leave us in suspense, Cortana," Shepard told her. "What do you have?"

The AI turned the holo image of the carrier on it's side, so its top view was showing. She then highlighted certain sections of the ship.

"My cyber warfare runtimes would allow me easy access to the ship's system," she explained. "The ship being in space gives me more options than if we were in atmosphere. Once I have control, I can vent atmosphere from key sections of the ship. Killing all occupants without envirosuits in the area, sucking some out into space if possible. EDI has similar subroutines to my own and could assist me even further in the task. The result, fewer Covenant, leveled playing field, edge gained."

Haverson still looked like he had doubts, but he did consider the matter more thoroughly.

"Well, it is better than just relying on surprise alone," he admitted. "And I don't doubt the Spartans could pull this off, especially with the Master Chief leading the charge. They could use all the backup we can offer though, just to be safe."

He turned to McKay who was still studying the holoimage and layout of the carrier.

"Lieutenant," he began, sounding a bit stern in his voice. "I trust your ODSTs are ready for an assault like this?"

The question sounded general, but everyone at the table sensed it wasn't really a question directed at the Drop Troopers under McKay. The implication didn't sail over her head either, as the disgruntled look in her eye proved. For her part, she didn't hesistate in her response to him.

"My ODSTs are looking to prove themselves again," she assured unwaveringly. "They've been itching for a good fight to remind everyone in this flotilla who they are. This sounds right up their alley. You can count us in, sir."

That seemed to be all Haverson needed as he nodded in approval. He looked around the room and saw the other members of the briefing seemed to share McKay's conviction. He then turned to Holland.

"As always, the decision is ultimately up to you, sir," he told him. "It does seem like we have a promising opportunity as Shipmaster Zek suggested."

"Then perhaps it is best we exploit it," Holland declared. "Alright, we hit the _Ascendant Justice_ then, take it for ourselves and use it's resources to further our efforts. But if we are going to do this, we need a proper strategy. So let's figure out how we're going to tackle this operation and fast, we don't really have much time left before they're on top of us. Cortana, bring up some schematics of Covenant Assault Carriers that we have on file. We need to map out our game plan."

"Aye, Aye, sir," Cortana responded with an ample salute.

* * *

The Master Chief led the three other Spartans onto the Corvette's upper landing pad. There, waiting for them, was the Longsword fighter he and Commander Shepard has used to escape Halo. Given their limited resources, Holland felt discarding the thing would be waste. It still had active weapons systems and could be used to defend the flotilla if the need arised. So they kept it and it was a good thing they did because they were going to need it now.

"Alright, here's how this is going to work," Chief began. "The Longsword can get us inside the carrier, but we need to get close enough to it. Luckily, the vessel is moving into position over the asteroid belt around the planet. We can use that debris to hide from their sensors and get ourselves close to the target. To further confuse them once we're close, our pirate allies have given us these."

Chief opened a box he had been carrying that contained several small devices. Linda reached inside and picked one of them up. It took less than a second of staring at to figure out what it was.

"Tracking beacons, deactivated I imagine," she observed.

"Zek had them removed from his Phantoms," Chief explained, closing the box and placing it down. "We can activate them again when we're close. The idea is it will confuse the Covies with enough false signals that we can slip through easily. We then dock with one lower maintenance airlocks and make our way inside. That's where Cortana comes in."

The AI's voiced cracked over the Comm-link for the Spartans.

"Once we're in, we find the nearest data uplink port," she explained. "Chief will upload me to their systems and I'll work my magic. First priority is shutting down all defensive weapons, allowing the other boarding parties to land inside the hangar through different insertion points across the ship. Shepard's team will be right behind us, the _Normandy's_ stealth drive will allow them to get even closer than we can without the beacons as a distraction. We link up with them and push for the bridge while the other assault teams secure other sections and cover our approach."

"While you and EDI start venting atmosphere to clear out other problem areas," Kat noted. "I assume the other assault teams will keep their suits sealed just in case. Hopefully that doesn't give away our strategy."

"Cortana and EDI will try to block internal ship communications," Chief assured. "For the moment, we suspect the Covenant will be slow to react to the situation."

"They won't be suspecting their own ship to turn against them," Cortana said confidently. "Besides the other advantage is that vented sections of the ship will funnel still surviving Covenant into kill zones for our own forces. Even if we miss some, they'll be forced into another trap."

"Seems pretty sound," Jun concurred. "Not going to be much use for my sniper rifle in there though."

"Actually, these Carriers seem to have a number of spacious sections throughout the vessel," Cortana advised. "You may get more use out of that rifle than you think."

Jun nodded at that and moved into the Longsword, he was followed by Kat, Linda and finally the Master Chief who hefted the box of tracking beacons into the craft himself. He set it down over to the side and moved to the pilot's seat. Linda was already in the co-pilot's chair beginning the start-up sequence. Kat and Jun had taken up monitoring positions on either side of the cockpit.

"What's the _Ascendant Justice's_ current status?" Chief asked aloud.

"Sensors have it moving over the planet's asteroid belt," Kat replied, looking at her screen. "Probably beginning their sweep. No fighters detected yet."

"We best get underway before their sensors pick up either of the Corvettes," Chief said. "Linda, start the engines and ease us into the field."

Linda activated the final checks and the Longsword took off from the landing pad. The shield over them deactivated and they floated out into space. They kept the engines and their power on low, they didn't want to get spotted on their approach. The Corvettes were doing the same thing, powering down until notified otherwise, it was the only way to hide from the Carrier. Entering the field of asteroids from below, the Longsword began to snake it's way through the space debris.

"At this low speed we'll reach our target in about twenty minutes," Cortana noted. "Not exactly a speedy insertion, but better than having to fight through a bunch of Seraphs."

"I'll settle for fighting Elites on my own terms," Linda stated candidly.

As they eased through the rocks, she looked to the Master Chief, keeping a steady hand on the controls. He seemed to sense a question coming as he spoke before she did.

"Doubts?" He asked simply.

"None, we can pull this off," she assured him. "We've been through worse. I'm just wondering about the objective of the operation a bit."

"We were going to have to re-engage the Covenant sooner or later," Chief reminded her. "Better to do it now, while they're still reeling from the loss of Halo. The supplies and firepower were the main selling point, hard to argue with that given our situation."

"That's not what I mean, I get why we're doing this," Linda clarified. "It's Zek that has me concerned. I'm not entirely sure this is just about supplies for him."

"Neither am I," Cortana admitted. "He has his own agenda, that much is clear. Then again, who doesn't? He is a pirate, for all we know this is about rebuilding his rep in the criminal underworld. I imagine storming an Assault Carrier would turn quite a few heads."

"For the record, I agree with both of you," Chief told both the AI and his old team mate. "He has other motives, but we can deal with that later. We keep our eyes on the mission for now."

Linda nodded and returned to her screen. It was going to be a tense long twenty minutes of slow flying through space rocks tumbling in the ether. They needed to keep concentrated on the task at hand. If they didn't get aboard that ship this mission was over before it started. Right now, there were at four other assault groups waiting for their go ahead. The Master Chief knew they wouldn't fail them. They were all Spartans, this was their line of work. Infiltrating and taking over an Assault Carrier was an impossible task for some, not them.

* * *

Shepard and his team were already getting ready in the shuttle hangar, prepping their weapons and equipment. Garrus, Tali and Grunt would be going in with him of course. Thane, Jack and Samara were getting prepped back on the now christened _Crusty Chorka_ with the Marines and Soldiers. Sergeant Johnson had been placed in charge of that assault group. Jacob, Zaeed and Mordin were moving in with the ODST group, with McKay leading the charge. Kasumi had volunteered to help the Jackals when they moved in with Zek, she was already on the _Serpent_ getting ready.

Legion offered to go along with the Pirates as well, on Tali's approval of course. Legion's glitch hadn't been as frequent for awhile now, his separation from DOT had helped in that regard. Tali decided he was fit for combat duty, so long as Kasumi kept an eye on him.

Miranda, unfortunately was the odd woman out due extenuating circumstances.

"I don't see why he has to check our computers now," she argued to Shepard. "They're not going anywhere."

"Retz insisted he get started now rather than waste time," Shepard explained. "EDI is going to be busy helping Cortana infiltrate the Carrier's systems. I need someone keeping an eye on him and I trust you do it. Just monitor what he's looking at and make sure he keeps out of the restricted files."

Miranda's frowned eventually dissipated with a sigh, but she still sounded rather annoyed regardless.

"To be honest I'm not too disappointed, after that business in the _Autumn_ I've had enough skulking around giant ships for awhile," she assured. "But I still don't like the idea of a pirate digging around our computers in the middle of a sensitive operation. The urgency suggests he's either found a perfect opportunity with this Carrier business or he's in a rush of some kind. Either way, I don't like it."

"And that's why you get the job, you play hard ball when it comes to internal security," Shepard reminded her. Just keep him away from anything concerning weapons especially. We don't need them selling anything that might bite us in the ass down the line."

Miranda just shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I have a feeling we're going to have to tolerate them for a lot longer so I'm just going to mentally prepare myself for whatever nonsense I have to deal with," she stated. "To be honest, at this point that is becoming routine. Good Luck out there, Shepard. As always, the ship is in more than capable hands."

"Indeed it is, Ms. Lawson," Shepard said jovially.

Miranda walked away, just as Shepard got a call on his omni-tool. He noticed the ID code and groaned. Turning it on, he saw Varvok's face in the image.

"I'm only making this call to see if you can at all be reasoned with," the batarian growled.

"I'm more than reasonable, but we discussed this in the briefing," Shepard reminded him somewhat exasperated. "We need your people to cover our charge for the bridge. And for the last time, I'm not using you as shields. Cortana and EDI are going to do their best to funnel them into a killzone, same as everyone."

"I don't like placing my faith in a synthetic, let alone two, no matter how reliable they are," Varvok offered. "Regardless, I still feel my men would be better served moving on Flight Control rather than holding our positions near the insertion point. It's a better area to set up a proper defence."

"And leave an avenue open the Covenant could potentially exploit," Shepard stated firmly. "Flight Control serves no real strategic value. The fighters can't attack us inside. We shouldn't waste resources on what is essentially fruitless."

Varvok looked almost incensed at being blocked again. He did not like being told to guard Shepard and Chief's flank from assault. Shepard didn't know whether it was about him wanting a bigger role or simply disliking the idea of his men being used in such a capacity. Given the events that had led him to turn on the Covenant, it was probably a bit of both. Nevertheless, Varvok's position was pivotal to their success, they didn't need him to go off on his own mission. The batarian was persistent however.

"Flight Control also has primary access to outbound communications," Varvok countered. "We can prevent them from contacting their escort, giving us more time to secure the ship."

"I see your point, but Cortana and EDI are handling that end too," Shepard told him, trying his best not to sound annoyed. "You're being redundant."

"There are a lot of tasks my men can get done much faster if you let us off the leash," Varvok insisted. "We are not here to absorb the enemy for you like a sponge."

"We're going to have a hell of a fight just getting to the bridge and the ODSTs are taking the same risk as you are," Shepard shot back. "So is Zek in fact and he's not complaining either. Look, if the situation changes you can act on your own initiative. But only if that happens. This assault is risky enough as it is without us changing the plan suddenly. You do anything, you contact me first."

Varvok just snorted.

"Fine, do your job and I will carry out mine," he said bluntly, then he hung up.

Shepard groaned again and walked over to the shuttle. The others were already waiting for him. By the look on their faces he could tell they had heard pretty much everything.

"Varvok still unhappy?" Garrus asked.

"I don't think Varvok is ever happy," Tali interjected.

"He still has his own issues with the plan," Shepard explained. "I'd be more inclined to listen to them if I didn't think he was doing it partly out of personal reasons. His pride was damaged enough when he realized he needed to come to me for help. Now I have him and his people protecting my flank. Not exactly something a self-acclaimed hater of humans wants."

Grunt just snorted in disgust.

"He should offer more respect, Shepard," he declared. "We could have left him on that damn ring and let him explode for all we cared. Batarians, always so ungrateful and full of spite. Okeer's tank barely ever mentioned them, that's how unworthy they are."

"We still have to work with them, Grunt," Garrus reminded him. "Much as we don't like it, we're kinda stuck with each other. We don't have many other options, not humane ones anyway."

"Hey, we don't have to kill him," Grunt argued back. "Just have Shepard and him get into a ring and have them slug it out for a bit. Make him submit and his fellow four-eyed weaklings will fall in line with him."

"Let's put that idea on the back-burner for the moment," Tali requested, trying to defuse the matter. "I don't think punching the leader of one of this Flotilla's factions is a good idea right now. Krogan solutions don't work for everyone."

"What works for krogan works even better on anyone else," Grunt stated firmly.

Tali sighed and looked over to Shepard.

"He'll come around, once that pride of his gets deflated a bit," she assured. "He can't work with you and keep up this grudge of his forever."

"Let's hope so, Tali," Shepard concurred. "Is DOT hooked up to your omni-tool?"

Tali activated the device on her wrist and DOT's voice soon responded.

"I have been successfully uploaded into Ms. Zorah's omni-tool systems as per your request," the AI replied. "I am awaiting further instructions."

"Just monitor status on the operation and keep my offensive tech runtimes functional," Tali told her plainly. "Thanks again for coming along by the way, we need every advantage to pull this off."

"Your gratitude is appreciated but unwarranted," DOT assured. "I am merely performing my function."

"Right, still, thank you anyway," Tali told her.

DOT being a dumb AI wasn't nearly as capable as EDI or Cortana. It was why she wasn't going to assist them in infiltrating the Carrier's systems. However, she had other talents that they needed, specifically in terms of keeping tabs on the overall mission at large.

"Alright, everyone into the shuttle then," Shepard ordered. "The second Master Chief and the Spartans get into position we need to book it to our insertion point. We don't want to be the last people aboard that carrier after all."

* * *

The shadow of the _Ascendant Justice_ enveloped the Longsword, blotting out what little light from the system's sun gave off. The Spartans all looked up at the belly of the ship hovering above them. Kat was the first to speak up and end the silence.

"Seen bigger," she said.

"Keep focused," Chief told her. "Cortana, where's our entry?"

"Marking nav point now," the AI said, creating a waypoint on his hud. "Vacant docking lock, just like our pirate friend said. Should be easy to attach to."

Kat was already over at the small crate of tracking beacons. Using the omni-tool implanted in her robotic arm she connected to each of the still active devices. She didn't turn them on though, just placed them on stand by.

"Beacons primed," she said. "On your go."

"Eject when ready," Chief responded. "We need to move."

As the longsword rose slightly, passing by the asteroid field, Kat brought the crate of beacons to a small refuse ejection hatch. She placed them inside, readied the ignition switch and pulled. An explosion of air erupted in the small space, blowing the beacons out into the void. Kat then activated the program and the beacons all lit up simultaneously.

"Distraction away," she said.

"Hopefully it confuses them long enough to get us past their sensors," Jun said.

"It will," Chief assured, pushing down on the stick. "Linda, more power to thrusters, we need to move while we have our smokescreen up."

Linda just nodded and pushed the throttle on the engines. The Longsword burst forward slightly. The slight jump had now placed them within closing distance of their insertion point. Chief could now see it just a few meters away. He angled the Longsword towards the docking clamp while Cortana cleared them for wireless access. The clamp started moving in their position.

"The Covenant will never learn," the AI huffed. "Their clearance codes are a joke."

"Let's dock first, then we can mock them," Linda requested.

The longsword soon positioned itself alongside the docking clamp and the airlock moved forward, attaching to their craft's starboard seal. The light inside went green, indicating successful connection. As soon as it did, Chief got out of the pilot's chair. Linda, Kat and Jun were already by the door as it opened up. He took lead and signaled them to follow him.

Slowly, they made their way through the connecting corridor until they found themselves in the Seraph Fighter Bay. There were no signs of life initially, but their motion detectors said otherwise. Chief signaled them to move forward cautiously, using the Seraphs in the hangar for cover. Watching each other's back as they moved, they scanned the room for any sign of Covenant. Jun found them first.

"Three hostiles, right of us, moving to some kind of monitoring station," he whispered through his radio.

Chief looked over to where Jun had spotted the enemy and soon saw them for himself. Two Elites, one Grunt, the latter of which was hunched over a terminal of some kind. They were probably on a maintenance patrol, checking the diagnostics of the fighters.

"Good eyes," Chief told Jun. "Let's try and take them quiet. We don't want to raise any alarms before Cortana is uploaded."

"I can take the little one," Kat assured.

"We can go after the Elites together, Chief," Linda suggested.

"Okay, move in," Chief ordered. "Jun, hang back and keep watch for more patrols. You see any, notify us."

"Copy," Jun responded.

They moved up cautiously now, keeping an eye on their targets. Kat was soon taking cover behind a small pillar as she waited for Chief and Linda. You had to be careful when sneaking up on Covenant like this. Elites had heightened senses and Grunts were always fearfully aware of their surroundings. One small misstep and they'd raise the alarm. Success meant taking a out a group at the same time. Luckily, a glowing monitor screen helped mask one's approach some.

Linda was at Chief's back as they got into position. From there he went right, she went left. Kat carefully cut across Chief's path to get into position behind the Grunt. When they were ready, they sprung the trap. Linda grabbed the Elite around the back, placing him into choke hold. The alien struggled, but could not scream, then the female Spartan snapped his neck. Chief stepped up behind his alien and punched him in the back of the head before grabbed his mouth. A few extra punches to the spine and the Elite collapsed to the floor. At the same time, Kat snuck up behind the Grunt and wrapped her arms around his head. With one twisting yank, the methane breathing xeno fell to the floor dead.

"Clean kills guys," Jun reported. "Don't see anything yet."

Kat was already at work at the monitor, her robotic arm typing at the interface with frantically. When she pulled away, she looked to the Master Chief.

"Monitor has a window into the main systems," she told him. "We can upload Cortana from here."

"Good," Chief said, already going for the chip in the back of his helmet.

He yanked Cortana's chip out and placed into a port near terminal. Cortana's image appeared across the holoscreen.

"I'm in," she said. "Working through their systems now. You better get moving, I'll try and keep in contact. There's a lift a few corridors down. Should take you to the upper levels. Still a ways from the bridge but it's better than nothing."

"We'll take it," Chief assured. "Just get those weapons offline and our people clearance for insertion."

"Already working on it, now go," Cortana informed him, sounding slightly snippy. "Once they find out they can't shoot this whole ship is going to be on lockdown."

Chief started moving as Cortana's image vanished, that was when Jun contacted them.

"Problem, another patrol moving in," Jun warned. "Probably checking in on what happened to the other guys."

"That's sooner than expected," Linda grumbled.

"No time to worry about that, get moving," Chief ordered. "Access Corridor to lift is this way. Do not engage unless we're spotted."

Jun quickly rushed to meet them at the exit. Chief took point again, leading them out of the fighter bay into the corridor beyond. They rushed towards the lift Cortana had pinpointed for them, but Chief had them stop just before they reached it. He could hear the lift up ahead, opening. Peering out past the corner, he saw three Elites step out. No way to sneak up on these three, they were already moving towards them.

"Cortana, what's your progress?" Chief asked over comms.

"I have access to their defensive weaponry around our insertion points and I'm working to scramble their sensors," she assured. "It should make it easier for the others to get aboard before they notice anything. The systems still haven't detected me from what I can see."

"Shut the guns down now," he ordered. "Things are about to get hot."

"This is why I work fast," she mocked. "Stealth mode rarely lasts long with you."

Chief let the sarcastic quip slide and motioned the others to move in with weapons free. He pushed out into the corridor first, firing a burst from his assault rifle. The bullets bounced off the shield of the lead Elite who roared back at the Spartan. Before he could return fire though, Kat had moved up and flung a grenade into his path. The Elite rolled forward into some cover as an explosion ripped through the area he had briefly been standing in. His two companions avoided the grenade as well, but their shields were badly damaged.

Chief refocused fire on the other Elites while Linda rushed to the other side of the corridor and lay down suppressing fire. Jun kept to the original corner and took aim at the first Elite. The next time he popped his head out he fired a single shot from his sniper rifle. The shot took off the alien's head and Jun moved up into cover within the corridor proper.

Kat moved up with Chief, firing her pistol at the remaining aliens. Already they were shooting back, firing plasma bolts at the two as they ran down the hallway. Chief ducked to the opposite side of the corridor and Kat did the same, rolling into some cover. The sudden shift in targets gave Kat an opening on the Elite that Chief had been firing at. Using the tech abilities installed into her metal arm's omni-tool, she activated an overload that fried what little was left of the Elite's shield. She then unloaded her pistol into the Elite's side while he remained focused on the Chief.

The Master Chief in the meantime was a bit closer to his target. He took a moment to check his ammo, reload a fresh clip and then he darted out with a blaze of fire. The Elite saw the charge coming and tried to back away as the giant human in green armor barreled down on him. Chief's bullets raked the alien's shields and when he was close enough, the Spartan clocked him in the head with the butt off his gun once and then twice. The alien fell to the cold floor, his skull caved in.

"You always use your gun like a club?" Kat asked moving up to his position.

"Sometimes more often than I like," he admitted. "Saves on ammo though."

"Can't argue with the results," Kat assured. "Just saying, a combat knife is always an option."

"Never really needed them," Linda explained as she approached. "Fists were usually enough."

That's when they heard Jun firing his rifle again. He continued firing down the way they came until he broke into a sprint towards them and the lift.

"Fists aren't going to work on them," he warned as he continued to run. "Patrol I spotted. Dropped one Elite, two more and three Grunts coming."

"Into the lift, now!" Chief ordered. "I'll cover!"

The other three Spartans piled into the lift, just as the Covenant patrol moved into sight. Chief fired several quick bursts as he backed into the lift, killing one of the Grunts. As plasma bolts started hitting his shields, he backed into the lift himself and Linda punched the button. As the lift doors closed, Chief a lobbed grenade out into the charging patrol's path. The doors shut just as it detonated and they started heading up.

"How many you think you got?" Linda asked.

"Doesn't matter, there will be a lot more swarming the halls when we get off this thing," he told her. "We just hopefully won't have to worry about them coming up from behind."

"At least Cortana is in the system," Kat said optimistically. "We'll be getting reinforcements soon enough."

"Still a long way to the bridge," Chief reminded her. "We need to keep on our toes, keep moving and hope we meet up with Shepard along the way before too long."

Despite the outward gruff stern demeanor, Chief admitted to himself he felt a bit nostalgic at the moment. He was part of a Spartan team again, only one he was long time friends with, but Spartans regardless. It almost felt like he was with Blue Team again. He had missed this and despite the perilous situation they were in, he felt a certain sense of calm. He was leading a team again, everything felt right, everything was as it should be. Well, almost anyway.

* * *

Cortana was used to infiltrating foreign systems at this point, this was the first time she had uploaded herself into an enemy ship however. The cyberspace of a Covenant vessel was wildly different from that of Halo, which was to be expected. It felt underdeveloped though, not nearly as expansive as you'd expect for an advanced alien species. The Carrier's internal security was slow to react to her presence and before long she had already blocked many of it's more basic counter infiltration functions. The Covenant had poor understanding of cyberwarfare, it was a product of their disdain for AIs in general. That she accepted, but she was prepared for far greater resistance. Even with them caught off guard, she expected more, that they had learned by now.

The poor initial security made setting up a wireless signal for EDI to lock onto far easier than she had originally hoped. Before long, the blue roving sphere that made up the _Normandy_ AI's avatar formed in front of her. The AI moved over to Cortana, standing now in what was the dark reaches of the Covenant systems.

"Greetings, Cortana," EDI said aloud. "How is the operation proceeding?"

"See for yourself," Cortana said, motioning her arm to the left. "I have access to the level one security cameras at the insertion points."

Cortana brought over several blue tinted screens, suspended in the dark purple void of the digital plane. Each of them was focused on one of the primary insertion points from differing angles. There were a few Covenant Patrols within them at the moment. Forces were being diverted away from the hangar as their superiors directed them to counteract the Master Chief's squad. An unintended side effect of their plan, but welcomed as it would mean fewer enemy forces for the assault groups deal with at first.

Before long, two Pelicans barged into one of the hangar bay's openings. Cortana had already sent the clearance codes for all teams, allowing them to lower the security screen and enter the ship. The transports' main guns opened fire on the Covenant patrols still guarding the bay. It didn't kill many of the Elites, but it scattered them. Jumping out of the craft were two full squads worth of ODSTs, who took full advantage of the disarray their unexpected arrival had caused. Grenades exploded among the Covenant lines as the Drop Troopers swarmed the deck.

Cortana soon spotted Lieutenant McKay among the ODSTs, directing squads amidst the chaos. She fired her own weapon off in short bursts, taking out one of the Elites as he tried to strafe their position. As he fell, she ushered her squad forward towards a nearby door, intending to push up to the next level of the hangar. As she did that, one of the Pelicans moved out of the hangar and allowed a third one inside where it dropped off more ODSTs to assist in the assault.

"Insertion Alpha is going smoothly so far," EDI noted.

"The Drop Trooper motto is 'Feet First' when it comes to a fight," Cortana informed her. "They certainly live up to that saying, whether or not they have a drop pod on hand."

Cortana got an alert that made her enlarge one of the other screens. Appearing on it was the _Normandy's_ shuttle, charging into the stern hangar which was closer to the Chief's position. It hovered near the second level and Commander Shepard was the first to step off. He fired down at a squad of Covenant soldiers and ushered the squad to follow. Grunt rushed out second and charged into an Elite like a mad bull. The alien barely had time to react before the krogan rammed him off the side of platform and onto the floor below. To the Covie's credit, he didn't die, but fired back as he tried to stagger back to his feet. Unfortunately for him, that was when a bullet struck him through the head from above, fired by Garrus' sniper rifle.

"Typical insertion for the Commander," Cortana observed.

"Truthfully not all of them are so violent," EDI assured. "At least they weren't before we passed through the wormhole."

Tali was out of the shuttle by now, using her combat drone to harass incoming reinforcements while the others made for the door. Unlike the other teams, they weren't here to tie down resources or secure parts of the ship, all they needed to do was link up with the Master Chief. Garrus covered Tali with his sniper rifle while she bypassed the lock. When the door opened, Shepard was the first through. He let off a few rounds with shotgun, suggesting there were already more Covenant converging on them.

"Little we can do for them at the moment," Cortana dismayed. "We still need time to get access to the airlock system."

"I am attempting a supplementary bypass as we speak," EDI assured. "Something is blocking my attempt however."

"Secondary security must've kicked in once the weapons went offline," Cortana groaned. "Critical systems will have more protection now. Best we kick up our own game then, I'm going to reroute a program of my own, should delete several sections of protocol from the systems. Just need some time to get it done."

As she spoke the Marine detachment arrived at it's insertion point. The lead Pelican's machine gun ripped through the Covenant stationed on the ground, destroying a few space-variant Banshees in the process. Jumping out first was Sergeant Avery Johnson, his assault rifle firing wildly. A grunt and a jackal were caught in the torrent of fire, as Johnson ushered his fellows Marines down to follow him.

With them was Samara, floating down onto the ground with the aid of her biotics. As she touched the ground she quickly turned and a sent a powerful biotic attack in the direction of an Elite which sent him hurtling into a wall. As she pulled out her own assault rifle and began to press forward, other Marines followed after her as well.

The Army Pelicans arrived next, dropping soldiers onto the upper level of the hangar. They quickly moved to secure the doors and link up with the Marine squads. All in all, initial insertion was going well, as far as Cortana could see.

"I have gained access to internal communications," EDI informed Cortana. "Working to isolate key sections of the ship and jam frequencies."

"Good, the less they can talk to each other the better," Cortana told her. "How about outbound communications?"

"Distress signal has been blocked," EDI assured. "But not disabled. Something appears to be preventing shutdown."

"Failsafes," Cortana mused. "I'll try overloading the system, maybe I can cause a feedback loop that damages the signal."

As Cortana attempted this, she saw one of the friendly Phantoms arrive. It was carrying the batarians, who poured out into the hangar bay in a flood. Although she did not have audio, Cortana could clearly see them apparently screaming and shouting, most likely some sort of angry war cry. She noticed one of the soldiers used a wrist mounted projectile holoblade to kill an Elite firing at the charging batarians. The blades stuck in the Elite's throat and then exploded. A second batarian used a grenade launcher to blow up an enemy squad on a higher level. Yet another fired some kind of netting that trapped a grunt inside and started to electrocute him.

"For black ops soldiers, Varvok's people act more like a club than a scalpel," Cortana noted.

"Batarians are not known for subtlety," EDI explained. "Their approach to warfare has been well-documented as ruthless and unyielding. Only the krogan have been known to match them in their brutal tactics. The difference being krogan have had more success with it and are perhaps more bloodthirsty in their own approach."

"At least they can get the job done, that's for sure," Cortana said.

An alarm pulled her attention of the screens, her feedback loop had been halted. How could that happen? Normal security couldn't counteract something directly affecting the systems, not that fast anyway. She would've put it up to her not paying enough attention to it, what with so many things going on at once. That was when EDI alerted her to another problem.

"Access to airlocks is still restricted," she informed. "The protocols you erased have been reformatted."

"Impossible, security can't do that," Cortana reasoned, before her thoughts slowly came to a realization. "Unless... shit."

She quickly accessed the airlock systems herself and then sent a network pulse aimed at a specific vector. She hadn't used it before because she didn't think it would be necessary, but she suspected that they weren't dealing with ordinary system security. When the pulse hit there was a growling, angry shriek, followed by a return shot that nearly knocked out her connection. She held strong against the cyber attack and sent feedback pulse right back into the system, firing the protocols and providing her access. She then placed up her own protocols, designed not to block out security but unauthorized access by something else.

"We have an AI in here," she warned EDI.

Her fellow infiltrator's blue form seemed visibly shaken by the news.

"I... encountered a Covenant AI before," she explained. "It was an unpleasant experience."

"I'm aware, I read the report," Cortana assured.

She recalled said report vividly, how the _Normandy_ engaged a Battlecruiser with a Covenant AI. How it was unhinged and tried to hamper EDI's progress. How she had had to rip the entity apart. As much as Cortana suspected they'd have to do that again, it was low on the agenda.

"Right now we need to isolate it," Cortana explained. "We can deal with it later, but for the moment we have more important things to worry about. Covenant AI are hardly as advanced as either of us, they're degraded rampant programs on their last legs. We need to remain focused on the task at hand."

"Agreed," EDI concurred. "My only concern is how it will attempt to hinder us further."

"We know it's here now, we can combat it," Cortana assured her. "We have access to the airlocks now, that's what's important. All we have to do now is locate the Covenant throughout the ship and we can begin stage two. Access ship wide security, we need to locate any enemy signatures and differentiate them from our own people."

"Already underway," EDI informed her.

As the two AI began work anew, Cortana saw the last of their attack groups come in. Barreling through a lower cargo hold hatch were two more Phantoms. They flew into the ship, their various plasma turrets blazing like mad in all directions. Jackal Pirates swarmed off the transports, clearly cackling as they did. Zek's team had arrived.

"Well," Cortana said, crossing her arms. "Now things get interesting."

* * *

Kasumi moved behind a tower of crates as plasma bolts started flying back and forth. She didn't have the luxury of a personal shield attached to her arm like most of her pirate friends. Her shields could only take so much punishment from plasma compared to those. As they set up a line of defense, firing a screen of green and pink fire, she pulled out a flashbang and chucked it towards a pack of grunts.

"Shield your eyes!" She warned as she tossed.

Some of the Jackals obeyed the command, the ones who didn't weren't too badly disoriented thankfully as they were further away from the epicenter. The methane suckers took the full brunt though and began stumbling about confused as to what had just happened. Kasumi took the opportunity to spray a blast of submachine gun fire in their direction. The shots cut the grunts down and some of the pirates moved up to take their position. As she reloaded her weapon, Zek suddenly appeared beside her, carrying a needler rifle on his back.

"Knew they wouldn't suspect someone to use a cargo bay as a insertion point," he laughed. "There's only a token few squads running around this place."

"They're still not making it easy on us," Kasumi told him.

"I know," Zek said jovially. "Wouldn't be half as fun without the challenge."

An Elite suddenly jumped out from behind a set of crates and fired a burst of plasma at them. Kasumi grumbled and turned on her cloak. Zek, who had been eyeing the Covie, looked back to find her gone. It took him a bit to figure out where she could've gone, before an Omni-blade stabbed the Elite in the stomach. Kasumi fired off her heavy pistol twice into the alien for good measure. The Elite slashed at her in pain, but luckily she managed to duck in time and roll away. She fired another shot and this time landed it in his head. The Elite finally went down and Kasumi rushed back into cover. Zek appeared by the box beside, grinning as he did.

"Gutsy move," he complimented. "A Sangheili's punch could practically take your head off. Retz said you had skills, I thought he was exaggerating as always."

"Meh, I've punched robots bigger than that one," Kasumi shrugged. "After spending some time with Shepard, you get used to nipping the heels of the big guys."

"Well if you want to be more effective with the stabby-stab, you need a better blade," Zek stated, reaching to his belt and activating a short purple blade. "My men use the classic energy cutlass, but I find plasma more effective. Fashioned this machete myself."

Kasumi chuckled warmly.

"As romantic as the image of me as a swashbuckler is," she said, "I'm not much for blades."

"Well you're with Kig-Yar pirates now, Ms. Goto," Zek replied jovially. "No better time to get acquainted then with them then now."

The sword fighting would have to wait though, as a new pair of Elites descended on them from the left. They fired a barrage of plasma as they rushed up through the crates and equipment. Kasumi returned fire, as did Zek, but the Covies were quick to get into cover behind a large mass of crates. They lay down a suppressing fire that slashed over their heads, forcing them down.

"How they are so accurate with those guns of theirs I'll never know," Zek growled. "The kickback is horrible and they overheat so fast."

"Well, I guess they're just better built for them," Kasumi reasoned.

However, in the middle of the barrage there was another burst of fire. Kasumi recognized the sound as a Geth Pulse Rifle. She looked up ever so slightly to see Legion moving up the adjacent corridor of cargo, firing his weapon with perfect accuracy. The Elites' shields were torn apart from the successive fire, while Legion's stayed intact. Then, rushing in from behind, Legion's grey combat drone charged forward and exploded among the two Elites. One was killed by the blast, but the other rolled into the open. He got to his feet quickly and charged at Legion roaring in anger. The Geth fired two clean bursts from his Pule Rifle, slicing into the alien's head. The elite tumbled forwards at his feet moments later.

"Pacification complete," he stated, turning slowly to Kasumi. "Unit-Kasumi, are you undamaged?"

"Fine, Legion," she assured him. "Thanks for the save."

"Same," Zek added happily. "We keep this up we should clear this room and be able to move up through the carrier floor by floor. We might even beat Shepard to the bridge if we're lucky."

Legion turned to a door in the distance and focused in on it.

"Statement unfounded," he declared. "Additional enemy reinforcements on approach. Engaging defensive initiatives."

Sure enough the door opened wide moments later and a plasma turret was staring down into the room from it. The grunt gunner was flanked by two more Elites who added to his firepower with their own weapons. They lit up the room, forcing Jackals behind their shields or running for cover. Zek looked up to the ceiling and spotted an overhanging platform by a stack of crates.

"Got a plan, cover me," he told Kasumi.

"I'll do my best," she promised.

She fired a few shots at random, trying to distract the gunner and his guards as Zek made a dash out of cover. The Covenant returned fire in kind. Legion had moved behind an idle wraith tank parked in the bay. He readied his Widow Sniper Rifle and aimed it at the Elites. His first shot caught one in the shoulder and took out the alien's shields. He dropped down into cover as the gunner turned his sights on the Geth.

"Enemy position formidable," he observed. "Advise heavier means of pacification."

"I'd fire the missile launcher I brought if I thought I could aim it for two seconds," Kasumi assured, keeping her head low. "Right now, all I can do is take pot shots."

That was when two pink shards struck one of the Elites in the head. He crumpled to the floor dead. Kasumi traced the shots to their origin and saw Zek standing atop the platform above. He had scrambled onto it and was now using it as a sniper's perch. He seemed to be whistling a tune through his beak as he took another couple of shots. This time he plugged the second Elite full of shards which exploded in a cloud of pink. The gunner on the turret was mortified and that was when Legion took his chance. The Geth took careful aim and landed a powerful slug right between the grunt's eyes.

"Move up boys!" Zek shouted aloud from his overlook. "The Covies just gave us our exit! Oblige their hospitality!"

The Jackals converged on the area, firing into the doorway, even as more Elites and Grunts tried to charge through. Kasumi made her way up with them, heading towards the door. As she passed an idle wraith though, something knocked into her side and then into a bunch of crates.

It was a hard hit, but she took it. Unfortunately, her attacker, an Elite with plasma rifle, wasn't didn't seem satisfied with that. He was distracted from his duty though by a wild scream from above. Zek, who had run along the platforms above, descended onto the Elite with plasma machete out. He cut into the alien's back before he knew what was happening and then stabbed him through the neck while he was still reeling in pain.

Kasumi got to her feet as Zek climbed off the body. She couldn't really see the grin through the helmet he was wearing in preparation for Cortana's little suffocation plan, but she could tell it was there. Spending a lot of time with Tali made her learn to read these sorts of things.

"Telling you," he said. "Get some sword lessons."

"I'll take it under advisement," she promised.

Zek took off after his men who were now charging through the open door of the cargo bay, intent on swarming the ship proper. The Jackal leader turned back briefly to usher both Kasumi and Legion forward.

"Come on!" He said. "You don't wanna miss out on all the fun, do ya?"

He took off again, Kasumi briefly saw him reaching for something on his wrist as he did. She didn't have time to think of what it was, she just tried to keep pace with him and Legion. He was right, they still had a ship to take. She just hoped the other teams were having as much luck as they were so far.

* * *

The insides of a Covenant Carrier were a lot more spacious than a Corvette. Kowalski imagined it had to do with the fact the ship itself was bigger. This gave them more room to move up through the interior of the ship with little traffic, but the same went for the Covenant who quickly began locking down passageways with heavy defenses. Unknown to them though, they weren't here to advance, just to find a nice place to hold up while Cortana sucked out their air.

Their destination was an armory of sorts, as good as place as any to fortify yourself in. The Space Pirates promised there was bound to be tons of plasma guns and fuel rod cannons inside they could use. Kowalski liked the sound of that, kill the enemy with his own ray gun so to speak. Before they could play spaceship Alamo though, they'd have to take the armory from the Covenant soldiers guarding the place.

The attack opened with Jack, one of Commander Shepard's biotics, letting loose a shockwave on the Covenant positions. It hit the forward turrets of the enemy position with such force that the guns and their operators were blown clean off the ground and smashed against the far wall. The bald woman then began firing her shotgun into the enemy lines, roaring with every shot. Her bravado probably didn't scare the Elites, but it did seem to drive the Marines on as they came rushing up behind her.

"Follow the lady's example, Marines!" Sergeant Johnson ordered. "Move up!"

This was only the second fight Kowalski had been in with Sergeant Johnson leading the charge. The man was legend in the Corps, surviving battles and situations most normal humans wouldn't. Some wondered if he was secretly an ex-Spartan or perhaps some soldier genetically engineered from birth. Crazy stories, but seeing him in action made Kowalski at times question if any of them were true. He watched as Johnson ran straight into enemy fire, slid into cover and then jump back up to fill a Jackal's face full of lead without even missing a beat. It was impressive for a man of his age to say the least.

Kowalski moved up with Ellingham, just hoping for a fraction of the Sergeant's prowess to rub off on him. They made it to cover and began laying down fire as some grunts tried to circle around their position. Kowalski managed to land a clean hit on the lead grunt and the rest of his flock scampered to cover. Once they felt relatively safe they started returning fire, forcing the heads of the Marines back down.

"Is it weird a few hours ago I saw one of these guys up close and not trying to murder me?" Ellingham asked.

"As if anything is normal now after yesterday," Kowalski huffed back. "You see the others in all this mess?

Ellingham scanned the area a bit before pointing towards a cluster of Marines. Kowalski looked and saw Pearson, Agley and Ramirez holding their own a bit further back, firing wildly at a pair of grunts. Eventually, Ramirez tossed a grenade that got behind the two aliens and blew them off their feet. The three of them hung back while other units rushed to take further ground.

"How come we never get stuck with suppression duty?" Ellingham asked.

"Charging in guns blazing is half the fun of being a Marine," Kowalski joked.

"I'd prefer not being a plasma sponge to be honest," Ellingham countered.

Something exploded near their position, a plasma grenade no doubt. They quickly returned fire, hitting one of the grunts in cover. Suddenly one of the other grunts was catapulted out of his position, making him an easier target for a follow up stream of concentrated fire. As soon as it ended, Samara threw herself into cover beside them.

"It would be wise to keep moving," she told them. "Idle chatter will not take this armory."

"Right, sorry," Kowalski apologized.

Samara vaulted their cover and pushed forward. The two Marines followed her closely, doing their best to keep up. As they moved closer to the door, Covenant started dropping dead suddenly. The loud shot following every exploded head signified a sniper. When they reached more cover, Kowalski trailed his eyes back to spot Thane, another of Shepard's crew, this one a reptilian alien known as a drell, providing said sniper fire. He carefully aimed each shot, moving from Covie to Covie quickly and methodically. Kowalski watched as he shot down another Elite with relative ease.

With Thane's sniper cover, the last few inches before the door of the armory were went relatively smoothly. Johnson was first to reach said entrance where he planted a breaching charge. He stepped off to the side and let the charge detonate. The door flung open and everyone poured into the room. Johnson led the charge once again, spewing fire from his assault rifle.

"Take out the Elites, scatter the rest," he ordered. "And don't let them grab any of the big guns!"

Johnson suddenly came under heavy fire from an Elite's plasma rifle. He quickly ducked behind a rack of weapons in their recharge station. He grabbed for a plasma pistol with one hand, over-charged the weapon and fired it back on the offending Elite. He then tossed the alien gun away and laid down a stream of fire at the Elite himself. The alien fell to the ground with over a dozen bullet wounds by the time the Sergeant was done.

Kowalski could only wish he was as capable as Johnson. Not that he was doubting his own abilities, it was just the Sergeant made things looks way easier than they were. The Covenant within the armory itself were a bit harder to dislodge than their friends outside. Tighter corridors gave them more places to hide. Luckily, they had the biotics from the _Normandy_ to make things a bit easier. Not by much, but better than regular odds.

Thane hung back a bit and used his pull ability to force some of the Covies out into the open. That gave the Marines the shots they needed finish them off. Jack's shockwave rippled across the ground and sent aliens flying into other racks and recharge stations. She also punctuated every attack with an angry growl or roar. An intimidation tactic, clearly. Kowalski doubted it worked on any of the Elites, but he really didn't want to confront Jack about it. She was a very scary woman despite her frame and size.

For his part, Thane stuck close to Jack, using her aggressive combat style to his advantage. Bad guys seemed more intent on bringing her down while she was tearing through their units. This allowed the drell to flank the Covies while Jack let her biotics loose on them. One Elite thought he had Jack pinned, until Thane's submachine gun whittled down his shields. The next time Jack fired her shotgun at the Covie it blew a hole through his sternum.

Kowalski at this point was just hoping he didn't miss any bad guys during their advance. The worst way to die right now would be when everything seemed to be going their way. So he kept checking corners every time he and Ellingham moved. He spotted at least one grunt this way and took him out with a spray from his assault rifle, otherwise he just tried to keep up with the momentum of the attack.

He eventually spotted Johnson again, using a plasma rifle he pulled out of the recharge station on an Elite surrounded by grunts and at least one Jackal. They had fortified themselves in the center of the armory, trying to hold off the swarm of humans descending upon them. Johnson managed to kill at least one grunt, but eventually he resorted to a more simple approach. He tossed a grenade into the enemy lines and let the fireball consume them.

The shrapnel did claim most of the Covies, the Elite ran out of the smoke in a rage. He fired off a burst of shots from a plasma rifle, forcing Johnson to duck for cover. The alien then grabbed for a second plasma rifle and began firing off in two different directions at any Marine he could see. Kowalski saw at least two of their number get taken down by the onslaught.

Thankfully, Samara stepped in to end the slaughter. She moved out of cover, strafing the Elite from afar. When he turned to face her rolled forward, avoiding his plasma bolts. When she popped up again, she flung a reave attack at the Elite, attacking his very nervous system with her biotics. The alien screamed in pain, but still tried to fire back. Samara shot him with what was left in her assault rifle and then flung him across the room with her biotics. He didn't get up from that.

The Covenant defenses seemed to crumble after that, the remaining gas-suckers and their ugly bird friends ran screaming out of the armory in a panic. The Marines chased them out, firing their weapons after them and hollering in triumph all the way. They had taken the armory, now they'd have to hold it.

"We have our toy box gentlemen," Johnson declared as everyone regrouped. "If we're going to keep it, we need to use what's inside. Gather up any heavy weapons you can find and set them up to defend the area. Block off all access to this room save for one entrance, we can funnel them in through there. We gotta hold out until Cortana can start suffocating these bastards."

Everyone quickly made a dash to gather up whatever weapons they could find. There were a few plasma turrets, those were snatched up rather quickly. Combustion rifles were the next favorite among Marines. Some tried to look for beam rifles, others the Covenant Carbine which was good for medium to short range head shots. Kowalski settled on just finding anything that could kill bad guys quickly.

"Found a repeater," Ellingham told him, holding the large plasma rifle up for him to see. "Man it's heavy, but it's got a way better rate of fire."

"Think it will be enough?" Kowalski asked cautiously.

"Hey, don't start sounding like Agley again, bud," Ellingham warned him. "You're not as fun when you're brooding and crap."

Truth be told, Kowalski found he could hardly help it anymore. Every fight felt like a suicide run now, especially after the business down on Halo. While being around such capable fighters like Sergeant Johnson and Samara was a confidence boost, he had to admit he did feel small at times in comparison. Feelings of inadequacy aside, he still couldn't shake the feeling he had nagging in his mind since Reach. Things on that ring world hadn't helped, especially with how close they had come to being obliterated when it exploded.

How long would this luck of his hold out, he kept thinking. Would he always be near someone more capable than him to keep his ass from getting killed? What happened if they died? What would that mean for him? The whole company was decimated on Reach. They lost Sergeant Taylor on Halo. He couldn't help but wonder how much more borrowed time he had left or who else would be willing to pay for him?

His eyes drew instantly to Samara with that thought, watching her direct both Thane and Jack to assist the Marines. They had grown close over their time together, although they were still only friends no matter how much the others teased him about it. Not that he didn't understand why the rumors existed and he'd never deny that she wasn't beautiful, regardless of the fact she was an alien. It's just he knew better than to assume she wanted something like that, she had other responsibilities. He was fine with that, at least that's what he told himself. Still, he hated thinking about the possibility of her death.

He didn't think he needed to protect her. Hell, she was the last person who needed a hero. How many times had she saved him now? He lost count pretty fast. He had soon realized though that Sam was probably more of a danger to herself than anyone else. Her Code had given her stability, or so she claimed. It had also created a bit of turmoil within her, always struggling with black and white nature of morality the Justicar life imposed on her. She would die to protect the innocent, perhaps too willingly. He didn't like thinking about what that could lead to.

Wallowing in fear wasn't going to help though. if he didn't want more friends perishing he needed to step up more. Ellingham was right, even if he was a bit brash about it. He looked for a weapon that could help him at least partially measure up to all the badasses stuffed into this room currently. He found it on a large rack hanging just above him, a Fuel Rod Cannon, fully loaded and with plenty of ammo to spare.

"Sure, why not," he reasoned. "Just like shooting a rocket launcher, right?"

Kowalski hefted the weapon over his shoulder and moved back to the line. He found Ellingham easily enough, who instantly spotted the Cannon over his friend's shoulder. At first he was speechless, then he just let it pour out.

"Really, dude?" He asked. "I hoped we could avoid the expected dick measuring contest."

"It has nothing to do with that," Kowalski assured. "I just want to be prepared. I mean, what if a Hunter runs through the door?"

"You even know how to work that thing?" Ellingham questioned. "I mean, it's not like you've had training with it."

"Well, I figure if I can fire a rocket..."

Whatever else he wanted to say in his defense evaporated when they heard a Marine cry out in pain. They looked towards one of the barricades being set up at one of the entrances and saw a Marine clutching his shoulder. There was an Army Trooper nearby trying to help him up, when an Elite rushed through the gap still open in the door and batted him into a wall with a single swipe. More Covies started pouring in, firing on the Marines. The Covenant were already starting a counterattack, not intent on letting them get comfortable.

As the other Marines opened fire, Kowalski knelt down and took aim with his newly acquired weapon. Aiming down the sight, he pointed at the Elite leading the charge. He had tipped over a small recharge station and was using it as cover. Kowalski placed the crosshairs over the alien's head and took a breath. Time to see what kind of punch this alien gun packed, he thought. He pulled the trigger and suddenly found himself on his back.

Apparently, even when treating it like a Rocket Launcher, even when trying to keep your stance firm and stable, a Fuel Rod Cannon's punch wasn't exactly like a Rocket Launcher. With his head still ringing from being smashed against the floor, Kowalski forced himself up and took aim with the Cannon again. He saw the damage he caused, the Elite was still alive, but only just. His cover had been forced back into a wall and he was struggling to push the recharge station off him now. When he did, Kowalski was ready for him and fired another shot. This time the explosion killed the Elites and at three other Grunts trying to support him. The other Marines and Troopers quickly pushed back the remaining Covies and began sealing up the door they crawled in through with a new barricade.

"Try not to crack your skull open firing that thing," Ellingham cautioned, he then moved to help secure the other entrance.

Okay, so probably not the best start to earning a greater sense of self-reliance, Kowalski thought. At least he was alive and he had helped stop an incursion into their lines. Now if he could survive until the airlocks opened and sucked the Covies out into space he'd feel even better about his chances.

* * *

The war cry of the Elite echoed through the chamber, followed closely after by a renewed sound of plasma fire. The ODSTs returned fire, with Lieutenant McKay directing the defense where she could. She opened fire on one of the Elites leading the counter-attack, tracking him through the chaos of the battle. Even if she didn't kill him, she kept him from directing his troops which was really all that mattered.

Eventually he zeroed in on her position and she ducked down to avoid his incoming fire. She rushed across the room, keeping her head low as plasma bolts cascaded overhead. She then dove near the edge of the overturned terminal and spotted her quarry still firing along the area she had previous been in. She took careful aim from her prone position and fired three clean shots from her rifle. Two shots hit the Covie in his torso, the third his eye. He dropped dead to the floor.

Even as McKay got back up to her feet, she knew one dead Elite wouldn't end this assault. They had taken this living quarters relatively quickly, finding only a few idle grunts defending it. They consolidated their defenses just as the Covenant initiated their counter-attack. Now they were in the thick of a real battle with the enemy seeming all around them. That was nothing new for them though, they were Drop Troopers, being surrounded was part of the job.

As she returned to her brigade she could spot Covies moving around their core defenses, trying to look for gap to exploit. Grunts scurried behind the main lines as Elites fired over their heads. The Elites would follow next, once the cannon fodder opened the way for them. She'd make sure it didn't get that far.

"Set up a base of fire on our right," she ordered a squad. "We can't let them breach the perimeter!"

"Moving," the ODST replied, seemingly grunting as he did.

She was getting use to the gruffness of the responses of every other Trooper in the unit. Part of her wondered if she somewhat deserved it. No Drop Trooper was stupid enough to confront her directly about what had happened, but that didn't make the wounds any less raw. She had turned on them, helped Spartans, assisted them in taking down her own people. Right or wrong, directly or indirectly, she had played a role in Major Silva's downfall. It had gotten her promoted to their defacto leader, which did not sit right with everyone.

Most of the ODSTs had at least cooled, some accepted it as just logical and a few apparently thought Silva had overstepped himself by committing mutiny anyway. There were still plenty of Drop Troopers though who she could tell felt betrayed and did not like how things were now. At least for this mission they wouldn't have to work alongside the Jackal Pirates or Batarians, at least not directly. McKay knew better than to assume that would always be true though. For now, the majority of her Drop Troopers were still bound to their duty regardless of whatever their feelings about her were. It was a small comfort, but at least it as something.

McKay took cover behind a table they had turned over and found Sergeant Buck there, reloading his weapon. It was a relief to see him, as Buck was one of the few Drop Troopers in the same boat as her. He and his squad had gone against Silva's mutiny as well. If anything made her feel better, it was knowing there were still some soldiers under her command who had followed her example on their own accord.

"Hey, Lieutenant," he greeted, slapping the magazine into his gun. "Great day for a boarding action, huh?"

"As good as any," McKay commented. "Where's the rest of your squad?"

"Have them spread out among the troops," he explained. "It's hard keeping up with all these Covies pouring in. Weren't we supposed to be sucking the air out by now?"

"Must be a delay," McKay told him. "We just got to keep holding out. Once the airlocks open they'll start losing momentum."

An explosion ended the brief conversation as one of the barricades on an entrance blew apart. Grunts and Elites poured through the opening, screaming and hollering. McKay growled in anger, but quickly composed herself.

"Buck, break that attack wave," she ordered. "I need to get us more firepower or this perimeter is going to get ripped apart."

"Roger that ma'am," Buck saluted. "Consider that hole plugged."

Buck took off out of cover, and moved up towards the line. When he got there, he found Zaeed Massani, firing his rifle at the enemy and screaming like a mad man. The old mercenary spat on the ground in frustration as he ducked back down, narrowly missing several plasma bolts aimed for his head.

"Bastards just have to keep punching holes in our armor," he growled. "I'm starting to prefer the damn Collectors. None of them had this kind of bloody initiative."

"They are persistent, I'll give them that," Buck concurred. "Want to help me see the error of their ways?"

"Screw that," Zaeed snorted, as he held a thermal grenade in his hand. "Burn'em all, let their dead Gods sort'em out."

"I can work with that strategy," Buck said nodding. "We head over the top of this cover and get danger close, push them back out of the room. Let's move!"

Zaeed tossed the thermal grenade over their cover and let it explode among the enemy. Buck vaulted over their cover and fired as he ran out into the open. Zaeed did the same, shooting off a concussive shot as he ran before returning to blasting away with his assault rifle. They killed a few Covenant along the way, but mostly their charge was just a brief scare tactic. It worked long enough to get them to where they needed to be, in spitting distance of the Covenant insurgents.

As they ducked into cover, a renewed plasma bolt assault lashed out at them. Buck waited for the aliens to overheat their weapons and then laid down a stream of fire. This gave Zaeed all the time he needed to activate his Firestorm flamethrower and aim it directly at the breech in the barricades. He let loose a torrent of flame that smothered the incoming Covenant forces. Elite and grunts alike turned to ash as fire spat out of the weapon. With the Covies outside ablaze, Zaeed turned the weapon towards the Covenant inside, laying down a wall of fire across the room.

At the same time, among the ranks of the ODSTs, Jacob and Romeo were taking advantage of the distraction. The Covenant were so busy dealing with Zaeed and Buck, they didn't notice Jacob moving on their flank. Romeo moved up beside him, keeping low to the ground.

"Just keep watching the pretty flame, Covies," Romeo whsipered beneath his breath as he prepared to take aim.

"You see the Elite?" Jacob asked.

Romeo scanned the area for a brief moment before replying.

"Still in cover," he said.

"Won't be for long," Jacob assured. "Get ready to shoot."

Jacob then opened fire one the Elite's position with his submachine gun just as he poked out of cover. The hits managed to score some damage to the alien's shields and left him vulnerable to biotic attack. Jacob sent a pull attack hurtling the xeno's way, but the alien ducked back behind cover and said attack collided with the Elite's protection. Jacob grunted aloud and fired another blast from his weapon at the alien's position. Suddenly, the Elite bolted from cover, making a move to escape. Jacob sent a second pull attack and this time it connected. The Elite was pulled into the air as he was sliding for another position.

"Got him!" Romeo declared.

The ODST placed his crosshairs over the alien's torso and unloaded two shots into it as he floated in the air helplessly. What remaining grunts under the Elite's command ran towards the main assault force and Jacob quickly started picking them off where he could.

The actions of Jacob, Romeo, Buck and Zaeed managed to close the barricade breech and provide the main force of ODSTs some relief. That didn't make things suddenly less hectic though, as the Covenant weren't slowing down the speed or ferocity of their forward assault. McKay needed to regain the initiative. She made her way over to Mordin's position behind a set of overturned Covenant storage containers. There she found the salarian and another of Buck's squadmates, Dutch, trying to fix a machine gun turret.

"How's it coming?" She asked.

"Plasma bolt did a number on it," Dutch explained. "We're trying to fix the feeding mechanism now."

"Not my expertise," Mordin put rather succinctly. "Fix people. Not guns."

"Just get it running," she ordered. "We're getting choked to death by these Covenant. We need a base of heavy fire to start pushing them back."

"Are they really getting that close?"

As Dutch asked that, McKay's sixth sense went off. She felt something wrong, then she heard it, the little waddling feet of a gas breathing grunt. She turned and saw the ugly little alien rushing at her from afar with plasma grenades in hand. She fired at his head with a burst from her assault rifle. The alien tumbled backwards and the grenades exploded at a bare minimum safe distance from them.

"Too close," McKay shouted aloud. "Get it working now!"

Dutch began stripping the feeder entirely from the weapon and set about getting a replacement. As he did, Mordin moved to provide cover. He fired a cryo blast at a group of incoming grunts. He then shot them one by one with his pistol, shattering them instantly.

"Potentially overwhelming numbers," Mordin warned. "Holding difficulty increasing."

McKay fired a burst into one of the Elites rushing the lines. Mordin joined her action by attack him with incineration blast that set him and two grunts nearby ablaze. ODSTs nearby finished the Covies off as they disintegrated.

"I need the machine gun now!" McKay shouted aloud.

At last, Dutch closed the weapon up and took up the gunner position himself.

"Let's hope I got this right," he said. "Everyone keep your heads down!"

Dutch pulled the trigger and gun barrel lit up like a Christmas tree. The furious roar of the turret rose up over the sounds of battle as Dutch swept it across the Covenant lines. Grunts fell by the wayside and Elites were forced to seek cover or die in a hail of bullets. Suddenly the relentless assault halted and the enemy began to fall back. The ODSTs added to the swing in momentum by keeping up the pressure themselves.

"Drive them out of the perimeter!" McKay ordered, letting off a few rounds. "Make them understand! This Carrier is property of the UNSC now!"

She wasn't sure if they appreciated the quip, but bravado was common among all Drop Troopers. Things like that just happened to come out. Nevertheless, McKay got some extra good news to further heighten the change in the battle.

" _Cortana to all teams,"_ the AI said over the secure line. _"Atmosphere controls are now hacked. We have control over their air now. We are beginning phase two of the operation now. Secure all seals if you are near a target area."_

The best news she had heard so far. The Covenant had been trying to suffocate them since this fight began. Now the tables were about to turn in a most literal fashion. This crazy plan that Zek had suggested actually seemed to have a shot at working now. Of course, everything relied on them taking the bridge. But with Commander Shepard and a squad of Spartans leading the way, that felt like a forgone conclusion. Didn't mean she was going to let up though. She still had a fight to win here after all.

* * *

Chief opened fire down the corridor at the Covenant squad in their path. The Covenant were quick to recognize the biggest threat it seemed, sending mostly Elites to block their path to the bridge. They had dug themselves into the corridor, creating a blockade and were proving relatively difficult to dislodge. Kat used her mechanical arm's omni-tool to do some damage to their shields now and again, but the Covies seemed better at taking cover from those kinds of attacks.

Not that they weren't scoring any kills. Linda managed to pull off an impressive headshot against one Elite by shooting a single round that ricocheted off the bulkhead behind the Covie and struck him in the back of the head from the side. As the alien slumped forward though, renewed fire rained down on Linda's position.

"This is becoming a slog pretty fast, Chief," she said with a slight growl.

"Relax," he assured her. "We're just waiting them out."

Mere moments later, something zipped out of nowhere and collided with an Elite. He was thrown into a wall where a successive explosion of several shotgun rounds blew him apart. The blur soon revealed itself as Shepard who turned his weapon on the other Covies. As the xenos were lining up a shot though, one was shot with a sniper round through the brain pan and another's head was grabbed from behind by a giant reptilian claw that smashed it into the corridor's bulkhead accompanied by a primal roar. Another shot, this one looking like a giant plasma bolt but Chief knew better, hit another of the Elites while a small roving ball of light zapped him.

"Move!" Chief ordered.

The Spartans rushed in as the attack distracted the Elites. Chief planted a boot in one's chest and then delivered half a clip of bullets into the downed alien's face. Linda's expert marksmanship wasn't affected by her movement as she landed easy body shots on two Elites, killing one of them. The second she whacked over the head with the butt of her gun as he tried to charge her. Jun fired a few rounds from his assault rifle before the the Elite closed in and took a swipe at him. He dodged the attack nimbly and plugged hit weapon straight into the alien's mouth as he pressed down hard on the trigger. Kat hit one Elite with a good overload attack that drained his shields and then activated the omni-blade. She fired two shots at the Elite's chest to disorient him before stabbing the alien in the throat and ripping the hardlight weapon out to finish him off.

When it was over the Covenant soldiers that had been so well dug in before had been decimated by the combined forces of Commander Shepard's crew and Master Chief's Spartans. The two groups now linked up with each other as they entered a small atrium past the corridor.

"You're a little late," Chief told Shepard.

"Sorry, EDI is a bit distracted with the plan," Shepard explained. "Took her awhile to guide us into a good ambush position. Anyway, how are we doing?"

"Well thanks to you we should be back on schedule now," Kat responded. "But I'm guessing the Covenant know we're headed to bridge now if that little blockade we just crushed is any indication."

"Hmph, who cares," Grunt snorted, smashing his fists together. "We'll just crush anyone stupid enough that tries to stop us."

Chief looked to Shepard upon hearing Grunt's strategy. The Commander just signaled with a circular motion of his hand to just let the big lizard have his say and roll with it. According to the _Normandy's_ records, straight forward ruthlessness was hardwired in his species. Trying to argue with him about was kind of like arguing against a brick wall. He did appreciate the krogan's enthusiasm, but that wasn't going to get them far in this fight. He wasn't the only one to agree on that.

"I'd prefer something a bit more tactical than just 'crush things' personally," Jun cautiously observed aloud. "Cortana has control of the atmosphere now, think she can start suffocating some enemies?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Chief reminded him. "She has a whole ship to consider at the moment and we're in deep. It's going to take longer to vent atmosphere this close to the bridge."

"So we secure it the old fashioned way then," Linda suggested. "Line ourselves up for a takedown, catch them off guard when we burst in."

"From what I remember from the plans, the assault carrier's bridge is a lot bigger than your average Covenant ship," Tali noted. "Clearing it is going to be a challenge, even with all of us back each other up."

"We decapitate the leadership then," Kat suggested. "Kill the shipmaster and the rest will be child's play."

"That could help," Tali agreed. "But we could put the odds more in our favor. We have access to their systems now. We could trick them into thinking our attack is coming from another direction. Setting off alarms and such."

"They'd probably either send forces to defend those areas or at the very least set up a defense at the wrong entry point," Garrus reasoned fairly quickly. "Good idea, Tali."

"I'm no strategist," the quarian replied modestly. "But when it comes to tech I know my stuff."

Grunt groaned at the discussion.

"Too much talking, lets just pick a plan and get back to killing already," he said brashly.

"Don't worry, Grunt," Shepard assured. "You won't miss out on the action. Okay, Tali, what do you need to make your fake alarm plan happen?"

"Cortana and EDI can easily pull it off," she assured. "It wouldn't take too much time away from their other tasks actually."

"I'll contact Cortana myself with the idea," Chief assured her. "In the meantime, we should get moving. My motion tracker is picking up more hostiles up ahead. We should take this corridor, see if we can circle around them."

Shepard nodded and motioned his crew to follow him. Chief did the same and they moved out along the corridor. About a minute later they came to open doorway. Through it they could see two squads worth of Covenant soldiers in a room that looked a bit different. Most Covenant ship interiors could be seen as regal or at times church-like in their design. This room looked more so, stretching up high to the ceiling with strange symbols across the walls. The outline of the room was long and thin. Everything seemed to point towards some sort of totem or statue at the back that appeared to be a rough facsimile of an alien creature, most likely a Forerunner.

"A prayer room of some kind most likely," Kat whispered aloud.

Their current position placed just slightly off to the side of the Covenant who were setting up defenses within the prayer room itself. A good position to hit them from, if they played their cards right.

"Linda, Jun," Chief started. "Target two of the Elites. Me and Kat will run in once the shooting starts."

"Garrus can cover you," Shepard told him. "Grunt, Tali and I will move in with you."

Chief nodded and set the attack in motion. Jun targeted one Elite, placing his crosshairs over the alien's head. Linda did the same, while the others got ready to run in. The two Spartans synchronized their shots, firing at pretty much the same time. The Elites fell over as their heads exploded into a mess of purple blood. Garrus opened fire next with his assault rifle as the remaining Covenant scattered, killing one of the gas suckers in the process.

Shepard charged in alongside Grunt. The krogan bulldozed through two Elites, their shields unable to protect them from his rage. Shepard's own biotic charge struck another Elite with a needler gun. He then turned his sites to another Elite taking aim at Grunt. He unloaded a blast from his shotgun that sent the Covie flying backwards. At the same time, Tali moved up to cover and began charging her Geth Shotgun. The superheated blast ejected from the weapon, flew across the room and vaporized an unsuspecting methane breather with ease.

Chief's charge with Kat was similar, tossing a grenade inside the room to start. It landed further up the enemy positions, killing two in the blast. Kat in the meantime unleashed an incineration blast that burned through a Jackal who tried to run for cover.

At that second, an Elite's plasma rifle tore into Chief's shields. He turned and dove to cover, firing off his rifle at the alien. The shots missed the Covie, but luckily he started taking fire from Linda and Garrus and was forced into cover. Chief waited for his own shields to recharge before vaulting from his cover and rushing the Elite's position. He clocked the alien in the jaw as it stood up, preparing to shoot the charging Spartan. The Elite batted the assault rifle away and lunged for Chief with a freshly ignited plasma dagger. Chief grabbed the hand clutching the energy blade and forced it back into the Elite's other arm. He then kicked the alien to the floor, pulled out his pistol and fired repeatedly into the Covie's torso.

Chief looked at the dead Elite for another brief moment, before Kat walked up behind him.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Fine," he assured. "Have you seen my rifle?"

Kat looked around and found the weapon on the floor. She passed it to him and he reloaded it's magazine. The room was clear now, the Covenant squads hadn't been much of a match for four Spartans and Shepard's crew. Grunt was stomping on the bodies of dead enemies, but Shepard soon reigned him in. It was time to get moving again. Hopefully the next couple of feet of corridors would go just as if not smoother. He seriously doubted it though. Experience told him the closer you got to the bridge the tougher the Covenant would fight.

He got a good look at the weird totem of the Forerunner. So this was the alien race they worshiped. Honestly, it was a very basic image, not entirely noteworthy, but it was still somewhat imposing. Thankfully he didn't have to deal with any of them, just their devoted believers.

First things first before they got moving though, contact Cortana about Tali's false alarm plan. If it could help them avoid more points of resistance like this one then they were all the better for it. He just hoped she and EDI could pull it off without being too distracted from the rest of the mission.

* * *

It was a good plan, Cortana thought. It would just be a bit difficult to enact with everything going on. Mostly because they still had a troublesome enemy AI prowling around the systems. It could potentially ruin the plan if it caught onto them. Then again, it was more than likely mentally deranged like most Covie AI. They could trick it, they just needed to cover their tracks sufficiently enough.

At the moment though, they were busy with phase two.

"I have located the muster positions for the enemy reserves," EDI announced. "Based on your lifesign and motion detection readouts, they are amassing their forces in these key areas."

Cortana let the information form in front of her, outlining the entire ship. Every compartment containing the most Covenant soldiers was highlighted. There were also red dots pinpointing every hostile xeno's position. Of course, it was as simple as just opening compartments. They had to be careful not to accidentally do the same to Zek's people. They were wearing envirosuits yes, but she didn't want to risk throwing them out into space either.

Luckily for them, Zek's team was told to stay within the lower decks in the cargo bay. So long as they didn't stray from the assigned perimeter they'd be okay. Kasumi and Legion's signatures were also among them, helping Cortana and EDI to better locate them.

"Alright, time to start opening some doors," Cortana declared.

She set up camera feeds in every problem area, getting a good look at the Covenant forces preparing for battle or moving through the corridors. She now began venting atmosphere from the various sections. Airlocks opened, seals were compromised, air was vented out of rooms. The Grunts would probably survive given their need for methane, but a good chunk of them would get sucked out into space. The survivors would be easy to hunt down and eliminate at their leisure. Or be forced to surrender, given that seemed to work last time for the pirates.

The plan appeared to be working, although the execution was a bit slow in some places. Positions close to the exterior of the ship had the unsuspecting squads predictably sucked into space. Others, further in, began to choke to death. Cortana made sure to lock the doors to the rooms and hallways they were in to make sure they couldn't escape. She watched as the usually powerful and deadly Covenant began to die suffocating. Elites clawed at hatches, trying to escape, their eyes eventually bulging as they grasped at their throats. Grunts panicked in confusion as their superiors began to collapse, dying all around them.

"It is a rather unsettling sight," EDI noted aloud, slightly perturbed. "I do not need atmosphere to breathe, but I can clearly see the pain. I understand this is necessary, but it does feel cruel."

"This is a mercy compared to their victims," Cortana countered unfeelingly. "This ship has probably slaughtered countless human lives. They looked down on worlds while they burned people to death and didn't give a second thought as to what they were doing. I don't feel all that sorry for them."

"Live by the sword, die by the sword," EDI quoted wistfully. "It is indeed a harsh truth of war."

Truthfully, Cortana took no pleasure in any of this. This was just what she was designed to do, infiltrate and use the enemy's systems against them. As she watched the last of a small squad of Elites crumple to the ground, the lifesigns vanishing, she could only hope that she had done enough to save the boarding parties further hardship. There was still a lot of the ship left to deal with and still plenty of Covenant to mop up. Their actions would indeed funnel the Covenant into killzones, but it would still take awhile to finish them off. Covies never gave up easy.

Just then, an alarm sounded off around them. EDI turned to her own monitors, pulling up an information screen in front of her.

"An emergency distress signal has managed to break through our communication net," she warned. "Our jamming frequency was overridden."

"The AI again," Cortana growled. "It must've decoded the protocol somehow."

"That seems most likely," EDI confirmed. "As is the possibility of enemy vessels picking it up."

Sure enough, another sound started beeping loudly. She moved back over to her own station and brought up an viewscreen displaying a long range sensor readout. Several Slipspace jump exits, close to their position. Smaller ships of course, but there were a lot of them and reading showed they were already on an intercept course.

"Damn it," she grumbled. "We need to stop that signal now."

"It will take time," EDI informed her. "The AI seems to have shut down all system based overrides for the distress signal. There is a manual switch, but we cannot activate it."

"I hate it when the Covenant have competent failsafes," Cortana groaned. "We need to get the weapons back online. I'll contact the _Normandy_ , _Serpent_ and the... _Crusty Chorka_. The ship isn't secure yet but we need them docked. We have to take evasive action."

Cortana hacked into navigation, it was still under Covenant control, but it was her best bet. She sent a low level systems spike into the mainframe and the computer set a course towards the gas giant. The Covenant would probably figure out what was going on soon enough, but navigation was on the way to the bridge. Chief could take it and allow her unimpeded access. She'd fly this carrier into the planet's low level atmo. The enemy vessels would probably be unable to follow them through the storms brewing across the surface. What she was planning on next was crazy, but it was no less crazy than any other plan they had today.

As she hacked in and attempted to alter the Carrier's course, a security protocol was suddenly activated. Then, a shrill angry voice started shouting from the cybernetic ether.

"Out heretic! Infidel! Get out! You defile everything you touch! Out!"

The Covenant AI, making itself known at last. Dumb thing was clearly deranged, but it seemed to have enough of it's processes together to know what she was trying to do.

"Come and make me, ya rampant piece of junk data!" She shouted back.

"You will be torn asunder for your heres-"

Cortana terminated internal communication. A quick altering of the firewalls and she locked him out of navigation entirely, at least for the moment. The little freak would probably keep trying to stop her.

"This enemy AI is becoming a nuisance," EDI noted aloud.

"He's a slowly degrading program who has a religious complex, he's a nuisance by nature," Cortana informed her. "I'll tell you when he becomes a threat. Then we'll deal with him together."

"Very well," EDI concurred. "I have access to weapons systems. Enemy scout ships are closing within range."

"Keep the skies clear long enough for our little fleet to get themselves docked," Cortana told her. "I'll have the hangar cleared of enemies by the time they arrive. I've deactivated atmospheric failsafes. We're going to have a lot of Covies shot out into space within a few minutes."

The plan kept getting new wrinkles, most of them because of this AI. But they were still on track. Chief and Shepard would be at the bridge soon. Everything would be okay, so long as nothing else happened. Of course, something else would happen, because that was just how it went. Hopefully, it wasn't anything they couldn't get themselves out of.

* * *

Varvok fired into the mass of Covenant pouring out from around the corner. The Elites quickly retreated to cover, so the only kills he managed were on their gas breathing lackeys. In frustration he tossed an inferno grenade into enemy lines and let the fires force the Elites out of cover. Varvok zeroed in on one of them and let loose with continuous automatic stream. The Elite eventually went down, but there were more of his comrades that did not. They returned fire, forcing Varvok down into cover. That was when a batarian adept nearby tossed a biotic cluster grenade into the fray. The blast took out two Elites and forced another to retreat to cover.

"This is getting ridiculous," Varvok growled. "Things were supposed to get easier after the synthetics did their thing."

The loss of atmo has slowed the Covenant down, but it didn't seem to matter. The smaller groups of hostiles were as ferocious as the first waves. It was probably out of desperation, now that they realized that they were probably all going to die anyway. They had nothing left to lose, which made them even more dangerous than ever. The killzones were overflowing with enemies and holding them back was becoming a chore.

Then things took another turn. As the Covenant fell back to regroup, Varvok heard the faint distant sound of plasma torpedoes being discharged. They were somewhat close to the one of the gun batteries as he recalled. Why were the guns firing? The AI had total control of the weapons systems last he'd been told, so obviously it was them, not the enemy. The only reason they'd be shooting though is if there were more enemy ships outside right now.

"Crap," he thought aloud. "Just what we need."

"What is it, sir?" Asked a soldier.

"The carrier is under fire," he explained. "The Covenant must know what's happening."

If the AI were smart they were most likely taking evasive action, trying to find a place to lose the pursuing ships. Hopefully the other ships were being called in to dock as well. What concerned Varvok the most though was whatever distress signal or tracker the Covenant were using to hone in on the ship. Wherever the carrier went, they'd follow so long as they could track any distress signal. This was precisely what he had warned Shepard about and now they were facing it.

"We need to act fast if we're going to have any hope of losing them," Varvok explained. "Get a squad together and follow me to flight control. We can disrupt the distress signal from there."

"But, sir," the soldier asked hesitantly. "Aren't we supposed to hold here?"

"Things have changed, I'm altering the plan," Varvok replied astutely. "We can just close off this corridor and be back before we know it. Flight Control is just a few meters down the hall."

He supposed he could inform Shepard of what he was doing, but he quickly pushed that thought aside. He'd just debate and argue the issue with him, probably shoot him down in the end too. It was a waste of time he couldn't afford. He was shutting off that distress signal now.

First he had a technician seal the door leading to the Covenant controlled hallway. With any luck it would take the Covenant some time before they attempted to head up this way again. The other parts of the perimeter would keep them at bay until they got back. At least the locked door would decrease the risks of any enemies getting through.

Varvok then led a small team back through the corridors and then outside their perimeter. The Covenant presence was nonexistent in this area, the lack of air in nearby sections had probably claimed most. The initial charges had most likely dealt with the rest. Flight Control though probably had a few holdouts defending the area.

When they got Flight Control, Varvok had them stack up on either side of the door. One of the soldiers then placed a breaching charge on the door and pressed the detonators. The explosion blew the locking mechanism apart and the door flew open abruptly. Inside, as expected, was a small squad of Covenant holdouts. Varvok tossed in an inferno grenade that blew up near some grunts. The other members of his squad rushed in after that. The Elites inside quickly rushed into cover as their underlings took the brunt of the initial assault.

Varvok himself took up position behind the corner of a terminal on the wall. Switching to his Kishock Harpoon Gun, he took aim at one of the Elites firing on his squad. He charged the weapon to full and fired. The shot went straight through the Covie's chest, killing him.

Varvok took aim at another Elite, but the Covie spotted him. His position was soon rocked with fire. He had little choice but to jump up and make a run for a better position on the Elite's flank. Plasma bolts streamed through the air after the batarian commander. He dove suddenly, sliding behind a central pillar. He could hear the Elite approaching on his position though. Arming his ballistic blades, Varvok peered out into the open. The blades went straight into the Covie's face and then exploded taking him down.

The final Elite was lashed against the ceiling by one of batarian vanguards. The rest of the squad continued to mop up while Varvok moved towards the main terminal. His time aboard Covenant ships told him this is where a distress signal would be sent from. He gave it a once and found what he was looking soon after, a large switch for the manual override on the side. Varvok forced it closed, shutting the signal down for good.

"There, it's up to the AI to find us a place to hide now," he stated.

As much as he wanted to expand their perimeter to this room, he had already taken enough risks. At least now the distress signal was offline and he didn't have to waste time getting it done. Good enough for him, it was time to get back to their job of protecting Shepard's ass.

"Let's head back," he ordered, before using his rifle to shoot the manual switch, locking it in the off position. "We still have a line to hold."

* * *

Kowalski fired another shot from the cannon, killing half of a Covenant squad as they rounded a corner. He had gotten used to the bulky weapon, even if he had to rest it against something to safely shoot it. His shoulder was a bit sore from the recoil. To conserve ammunition and give his back a break from the cannon's weight, he switched back to his rifle now and then. Between the two weapons he racked up quite a few kills.

Holding the Covies back was taking it's toll on everyone, as wave after wave of relentless enemy forces tried to take the armory. They were all repulsed, but they took a few casualties every time. At least in the initial waves, now with the atmosphere vented out in the nearby rooms and corridors not as many were attacking them. The waves grew smaller after that, still ferocious but not as numerous. Elites were more willing to pullback and regroup it seemed. They knew they had smaller numbers, they were trying to think smarter. They didn't have many options though, they had locked down the armory pretty tight by now.

The _Normandy_ crew were as busy on the frontlines as any Marine or Trooper. Samara especially stayed consistently active, moving to any part of the line where the Covies were hitting the hardest. Then she hit back even harder with throw attack that sent Elites hurtling back down the corridors they came up in. Others she'd hit with reave and then a second biotic attack to detonate the first. The resulting explosion sent nearby Covies flying. Thane kept his sniper rifle pointed on the enemy, picking them off as they came up the long access ways. Jack was incredibly aggressive in her own actions, using both biotics and her shotgun to take out the enemy, mainly when they got close. That happened less and less as the numbers of the Covenant started to dwindle.

The tide was already turning in their favor, that much was clear, but they had to remain vigilant. The Covenant were defending this ship to the last alien. They couldn't slack off or show quarter just because there were fewer of them now. At least, that's how Sergeant Johnson put it.

"Keep up the pressure people!" He ordered boisterously. "You know the Elites won't! They won't stop till we're all dead, so don't make it easy for them!"

Not even a minute after that another wave hit, again it was pretty small. There were about a squad and a half of them moving in from the right corridor. They probably were hoping the plasma turrets they had set up wouldn't have great coverage at that angle. The Covenant soldiers soon charged into the open, firing like mad. The Marines and Troopers fired back, Jack joining in with a powerful biotic shockwave that knocked an Elite over.

Kowalski took a few shots now and then, he was starting to run low on bullets after all. As he took down a grunt through the head though, he heard fire coming from the other side of their position. He turned and saw that some of the Marines had moved back and were now calling out another enemy attack. The wave had split their forces, probably trying to overwhelm them. Somehow, this second group had gotten into position in time to attempt this. They were already advancing on their lines, focusing fire on the plasma turrets they had set up.

Kowalski moved to help the other Marines fight back this desperate pincer maneuver. Johnson, who had also noticed what was going on, kept things coordinated best he could in the chaos. Which for him meant more colorful yelling.

"Don't go running around like headless chickens, Marines!" He demanded. "Everyone here with me holds their ground! We reinforce where needed!"

Kowalski was already with the other Marines, so he was reinforcing the opposite position regardless of Johnson's orders. The rest of his squad were standing their ground, so it wasn't like he was going to be missed too much. As he settled in, he could see Samara nearby, firing her assault rifle on the incoming Covenant. She then tossed out a biotic attack that struck a Jackal sniper hard, throwing him sideways into a bulkhead.

Kowalski did his best to take her eyes off her, he needed to keep focused. He aimed his fuel rod cannon down the range, picked out a group of Covies and fired. The blast rocketed towards the aliens and incinerated them. Kowalski scanned the weapon across the room, firing the remaining shots in the chamber one after the other. Green balls of fire erupted across the area. The barrage ended quickly though, not that many shots in cannon's chamber after all. When it was over, there were a number of dead Covies sprayed out across the floor. The remaining Covenant soldiers tried to regroup, only to be shot down by the other Marines.

Kowalski took a deep breath, he had helped in some way. A small way at least, but better than nothing. He felt like he had actually proven himself. That he could actually make a difference, be of value. He hadn't felt like that for awhile to be honest. The feeling was confirmed when Samara turned to him and simply nodded in recognition of his accomplishment. He just nodded back, doing his best not to smile too hard in return.

* * *

Navigation was just up ahead and the Covenant had it locked down hard. Breaking through the outer perimeter proved to be a challenge, despite the odds stacked against the defenders. The Elites had set up several shield barriers to hide behind, as well as one plasma turret defending the way in. Jun kept shooting at it, forcing the gunner's head down. He couldn't do much about the other guns blocking their way inside though. They needed to get inside though, Cortana was getting them out of harm's way but they couldn't risk the Covenant overriding her control of the ship. If they stopped her, they'd be sitting ducks for the returning escorts chasing them outside.

"Anyone got a shot on some of those shield barriers?" Shepard asked.

"I do," Garrus assured, taking aim with his sniper rifle.

"Same," Linda added.

The two marksmen began taking aim at the mechanism where the shield barriers sprouted from. One shot from Linda's rifle caused a barrier to explode in a blast of sparks. The barrier deactivated and the rest of the team opened fire on the Covenant hiding behind them. Kat scored an easy headshot on an Elite who suddenly found himself out in the open when the barrier dropped. Between Garrus and Linda, the defenses started to crack. That was when Chief charged in, tossing a grenade as he ran. It landed near the plasma turret, blowing up the gun and it's operator.

Shepard, his team and the rest of the Spartans charged up next. Grunt's Claymore shotgun blew one Elite in half as the krogan lunged forward. They were soon at the door, where Tali bypassed the lock for them. The door slid open and the attack resumed. The Covenant inside navigation were no less prepared for a fight than the bad guys outside it seemed.

"Sweep room, right to left," Chief ordered aloud. "We need to put pressure on both ends."

Shepard was already ahead of him in terms of strategy, biotic charging into a Jackal who had let his shield down slightly. As he went flying, Shepard turned his shotgun on a nearby Elite and filled him full of incendiary rounds. Grunt, Garrus and Jun followed his lead, moving up through the plasma fire flying past them. The rest of the Spartans and Tali took the other side of the room. Tali's drone added to their end of the assault, striking at gas suckers blocking their forward progress.

"Focus fire on the Elites at the back," Kat suggested, sliding into cover.

"I got one targeted," Tali declared activating her omni-tool. "Taking down his shield!"

Tali activated energy drain, hitting the Elite, which drained his shields to almost nothing. Chief opened fire with a sustained stream, taking the Elite out from afar. As he pulled back into cover though, he saw a door to their flank chime and start to slide open. Behind it was a small squad of Covies, led by a single Elite. The Covenant leader pointed his plasma rifle at Tali specifically while growling. Reacting quickly, Chief rushed out of his own cover and placed himself between the quarian and the Elite's fire. His shields took a hard hit and one of the plasma bolts hit him in the arm. Fighting through his pain, Chief let loose with his assault rifle and forced the Elite to duck behind the doorway.

"Go! I'll cover!" Chief ordered Tali.

The quarian nodded and moved up to a terminal. Chief pulled back behind another piece of navigation equipment, plasma fire slicing through the air around him. As he knelt down into cover to reload, Kat and Linda rushed up into cover close to him.

"You're hit," Linda stated. "How bad?"

"No worse than usual," he grunted. "Draw the Elite out, we need to secure the flank."

Kat took up the offer to try, rolling a grenade across the ground in front of them. It detonated a few feet in front of the Elite's position. The explosive wasn't meant to kill the Elite though, only to serve as a distraction. Kat used the booming sound and obscuring smoke to rush to a better position near a pair of terminals. The Elite eventually peered out to keep shooting at the Spartans, but by then Kat was in place. He didn't spot her as she took aim with her pistol and fired several shots at him.

As the bullets bounced off his shields, the Elite realized his cover was compromised. He rolled out into navigation, firing away with his plasma rifle in anger at Kat's position. He made a strafing dash to a column he could better hide behind, but Kat had done her job. Chief and Linda moved up from cover and perforated the Covenant leader with sustained fire. His shields failed as he made a last ditch charge at fired a single shot through his neck and watch him collapse to the floor. The few remaining methane breathers he had brought with him scattered in fear. Kat and Tali picked them off as they ran back towards the door they come through.

Meanwhile, Shepard finished off what was left of the Covenant on his side of the room. Cyro ammo froze the final Elite solid just in time for Grunt to charge through him. The Covie shattered and with him so did the last bit of resistance within navigation. The team regrouped around the central console, more mindful of their flank now.

"That area was supposed to be closed off," Kat noted. "The Covenant shouldn't have been able to send a squad through. The batarians should've stopped them."

"You think their lines are cracking?" Garrus asked.

"I don't think so," Shepard said grimly.

Sensing what the Commander wanted, Chief contacted Cortana and put her on their squad's private comm-channel.

"Cortana, how are Varvok's lines holding?" He asked.

"They're fine," she assured him. "Fewer Covenant forces to deal with now, same with everyone. We're running out of things for everyone to shoot."

"Anything odd in their sector?" Shepard cut in.

"Yes, I just noticed that Flight Control has been taken offline," Cortana observed aloud. "I must've missed it in all this chaos. Taking over a ship's flight systems and keeping the bridge locked out of them is more taxing then I thought. EDI's struggling to keep up herself."

Chief instantly saw Shepard face grow cold and disgruntled, his hands balling into fists.

"I'm going to throttle him," he growled. "He did exactly what I told him not to do."

"You could just call him up now and tell him off," Jun suggested.

"He won't listen that way," Shepard explained. "I need to do it in person and right now we have bigger things to worry about. I'll deal with Varvok's bullshit when we're done."

Chief silently agreed, one insubordinate soldier was bad, but they had to prioritize here. They still had a bridge to take and a bit of a ways to go in order to reach it.

"Good news is we've taken navigation," Chief explained to Cortana. "They won't be able to retake control of the ship form here."

"I know, I can see you on the monitors," Cortana assured him. "As for our fellow ships, they've docked with carrier and we're en route for the gas giant's atmosphere. Just keep heading for the bridge, you're almost there. Meanwhile, I need to stop the Covenant down in engineering."

"Why there?" Grunt asked confused. "They don't pose a threat to us."

"What she means is the Covenant down in engineering are trying to kill the engines," Tali informed the krogan. "They do that and we're dead in space and we can't reach the gas giant."

"Just keep your focus on the bridge," Cortana informed them insistently. "I already have a team headed for the engine room as we speak. I'll let you know how they're doing."

Chief thought for a moment, who could Cortana possibly spare to send to the engine room? Then he realized who she was talking about. She probably didn't have much choice, but he really hoped it wasn't a mistake.

* * *

Kasumi stayed behind the large pylon as plasma fire raked the area. The lack of concern for their own equipment probably should've been expected given how they were trying to shut it down. When they first got inside the engineering room, they instantly spotted several Covenant on terminal stations all over. They were frantically inputting commands, cycling down the engines stage by stage. She could already hear them powering down, the ship itself losing speed.

"Power to central thruster decreased by twenty five percent," Legion warned. "Engines currently in systematic shutdown."

"You can stop it right?" She asked him.

"We will need manual access to reactivate engines at this stage," the geth explained. "Automatic shutdown procedure must be overridden."

Zek's pirates were doing their best to push through, but they were facing off almost exclusively against Elites. The Covie officers kept themselves in a defensive circle around the central terminal, obviously the only way they could stop the emergency shutdown that had started. While the pirates could get close with their shields blocking the plasma bolts, the excessive fire overloaded the shields eventually. The Jackals who couldn't get back to cover quickly enough got cut down.

"I'm going to try and get in there," Kasumi told Legion. "Cover our pirate buddies."

"Affirmative," Legion concurred.

The Geth started shooting at the Covenant lines, killing one Elite with a single headshot. Legion now incurred the wrath of the Elites, their ire now placed on him. Blasts struck the synthetic's cover, but while they were busy with the machine, Kasumi slipped out while invisible. She slunk across engineering, climbing on top of some kind of monitoring station. As she did, she spotted Zek up above the fighting himself. The pirate captain had positioned himself on a walkway above. He started using his needler rifle to pick off problem Elites, of course it didn't take them long to figure out where he was shooting from.

Now the Elites were distracted between two snipers, more than enough cover for her own plan. She brought out her missile launcher and aimed it at the Covies. She had to make sure not to damage the control console nearby, Legion still needed that. Really, all she wanted was to blow a hole through their defenses and let the pirates get up close and personal.

She fired two missiles, striking the central position of the Elites. Explosions ripped through the Covies and the Jackals wasted no time in exploiting the newly opened hole. They rushed the gap, screaming and hollering, overcharging plasma pistols and spraying needle rounds everywhere. Legion himself pulled out of cover to join the charge. Zek himself jumped down from the platform above, landing on the back of an Elite who he stabbed through the back with his plasma machete. He then jumped off, activating his arm shield and began hacking and slashing his way through the defenders.

Kasumi jumped across several pieces of engineering equipment to land in the melee herself. She fired off a burst from her submachine gun at the first Elite who charged her and then rolled to avoid fire from another. She tossed a flashbang into the Elite's face, blinding him and then shot him as well.

She moved through the still ongoing fighting to find Zek fighting another Elite. The pirate leader blocked the Covie's punch with his shield, said punching sending him stumbling backwards. The Elites opened fire on Zek next, forcing him to keep his shield up. The pirate pulled out his needler and pressed down hard on the trigger. The Covie was stuck by several pink shards and exploded into a bright burst moments later. As he was doing that, another Elite nearly snuck up behind him to shoot him through the head. Luckily, Kasumi managed to close the distance and stab an omni-blade into the back of the Elite's head. Zek looked back as the big alien fell to the floor dead and Kasumi standing off to the side.

"Nice thrust," he complimented. "Thanks."

"Any time," Kasumi replied.

Zek activated his plasma machete again and charged forward with a group of his fellow pirates. He blocked the shots of one Elite before rushing past him, slashing deep into his side. Legion was close behind the pirate charge, his drone covering his approach to the central console. The Geth shot down another Elite as he kept behind a small crate. When that was taken care of, the synthetic began work on the console itself.

"Overriding emergency engine shutdown," he announced. "Approximate time, two minutes."

"Excellent," Zek declared, firing his plasma pistol into a down Elite. "At this rate the carrier will be ours in no time."

"Cortana and EDI still have to get us away from the other Covenant ships," Kasumi reminded him. "And Shepard still has to take the bridge."

"Minor issues as far as I'm concerned," Zek shrugged. "Also out of my hands, something I'd rather not think about. Now, let's secure engineering and be on our way."

As Zek walked away, Kasumi noticed he was talking into the device on his wrist again. Clearly he was speaking to someone else. She didn't know exactly who, but she had a good idea. She didn't say anything aloud though, not really the time or place. Better to let Shepard know when they regrouped, for now they still had to clear this room and sweep the rest of the lower decks.

* * *

Another squad of Covenant fell before the rattling of Dutch's machine gun fire. By now the barrels were burning red, constantly smoking. The ODSTs needed to keep dousing the turret with their own water rations just to keep it running. They needed to keep the gun firing, it was only thing that deterred the Covenant from charging forward. Although they were coming in smaller numbers, keeping them bottled up and suppressed was still a necessity as far as McKay was concerned.

Another group of Elites pushed into the room, these ones were Ultras and they were armed with concussion rifles. If they were here, then the Covies had used up all the other reserves. McKay grabbed her battle rifle and took aim at the first one she could spot through her crosshairs. She fired three bullets each, striking the alien's shields hard. He rolled to cover before the third shot could connect, saving his skull. McKay followed him, but the sound of incoming forced her to dive for cover.

Concussion blasts struck around the ODST perimeter, hitting Drop Troopers who weren't fast enough to duck. Concussion rounds tended to sting more than burn, but they could kill if they hit you often and hard enough. McKay knew these Ultras needed to go down, hard. Mordin had already shot a cryoblast to freeze a few of the Covies in their tracks. Dutch let loose a storm of machine gun fire that shattered the icy Elites, but there were more still alive and intact.

McKay tried to look for her target again, peering through the crosshairs she found him where she left him. He was still firing off his concussion rounds here and there, while gas-sucking grunts pushed up through the ranks. They were mini-barrage squad it seemed, creating cover fire for the cannon fodder to advance through. Quickly, McKay took aim at the Ultra Elite, firing shot after short in quick succession. The Elite's shields went down again, but this time McKay was faster and managed a hit on the alien's head as he stood up to try to run to better cover.

"Anyone with heavy weapons, fire back!" McKay ordered through the radio. "Carpet the killzones! Wipe them out!"

Grenades and rocket launchers suddenly fired directly into the heart of the Covenant lines. Ultra Elites went up in fireballs alongside their charges. Dutch's machine gun raked the aftermath with a furious rain of bullets. Went it was over, once again nothing was moving. They had answered the concussion assault with their own heavy barrage. They pushed back another wave, but at this point, McKay wasn't sure how much left they to give.

There was a small explosion off to the side, she looked to see Dutch turret had blown it's top. The big Trooper tried frantically to get it to stop smoke and get it's casing back on. Jacob had run over to help, but McKay had a feeling the gun wouldn't fire again. She wanted to hope she had killed the last of the Covenant, that they had secured the area, but she couldn't know for sure.

That was when they got some good news, an indication that they were turning the tide.

"Cortana to all fire teams," the AI announced. "We have entered the gas giant's atmosphere. We are attempting to lose the Covenant escort. Enemy forces within the vessel have dwindled to less than ninety-five percent."

Good, then they were almost done. At least that's what she took away from the percentage. As she sat up to sort things out, there was a sound from the entranceway. Someone shouted that they saw something approaching. She looked, but saw an odd silhouette that matched no Covie she had fought. A strange purple tentacle wrapped around a dead Elite's ankle and pulled it away.

"Hold fire!" She shouted aloud. "Hold fire!"

Something emerged from the hallway proper, but it didn't seem to possess any malice or ill-intent. It didn't come inside shooting. Hell, it didn't even seem to have weapons at all. It floated above the dead Covenant, pulling them out one by one. Then, when a space was cleared, it started work on a broken panel on the wall. It was then joined by another floating apparition with tentacles, and then another.

They weren't attacking, in fact they didn't even seem to acknowledge the ODSTs were even there. They were just pulling out bodies and trying to fix battle damage to the ship's systems. Lights turned back on for one, as did damaged terminals and work didn't know what to make of it, but she figured someone would want to know what was going on.

"Someone get me Colonel Holland," she requested.

* * *

Tali's plan seemed to work, the way to the bridge didn't appear guarded. The false alarms had sent a good portion of the Covies running off on a wild goose wouldn't return, Cortana would see to that by removing the air to the section when they arrived. All they had to do now, was take the bridge. Then their part of the mission would be complete.

They entered the Bridge silently, Kat releasing the lock while disabling the chime for the door. The Bridge itself was huge, much bigger than any they had been on previously. The Elites and their underlings seemed too busy at their stations or shouting orders to notice them. The team quickly moved behind a pair of large support columns where Linda began to scan the area through her scope.

"We got a bunch of Elites around the central platform, including their shipmaster," she informed the others, her finger pointing towards the golden clad Elite. "I don't really have a great shot from this angle, but I can probably kill some of his crew."

"Leave him to me," Chief said. "Just make sure I can get to him."

"I'll back you up," Shepard added diligently. "Garrus, help Linda in keeping our approach covered. Everyone else, take both sides of the room, split their focus. We need to keep them off balance. We move on Linda's shot."

Linda aimed through the scope, getting a bead on one of the Elites close to the shipmaster. She fired a single shot that sliced through the alien's shields and blew open his skull. As he fell, Linda switched to her second target and fired two shots into his back before he could react. That was when the rest of the Covenant spotted the group and opened fire on their position.

Both Chief and Shepard made a run for the Command Platform, while their team split up to keep other enemies occupied. Linda and Garrus' sniper cover managed to remove a few of the obstacles in their path, but that didn't leave them with nothing to deal with on their own. One methane breather and what one could assume was his handler, stood in their path. Chief shot the grunt with his pistol, executing him with a headshot. Shepard simply forced the Elite out of their way with a shockwave attack. Their ruckus caught the attention of the Shipmaster, however he bellowed at them from above on the platform.

To the Covie leader's credit, he didn't wait for the two humans to engage him. Instead, he vaulted over the edge of the platform and landed in front of them. Shepard aimed a powerful biotic punch at the alien, but the Elite suddenly jumped forward and batted the commander away with a swipe of his backhand. Shepard dropped into a small gully beneath the platform lined with small terminals and stations meant for grunts. To keep Chief from helping him, the Elite fired his plasma rifle at the Spartan, forcing him to roll away from the gully.

Chief had to assume the Commander was alright, he had taken way bigger hits than that. For now, he had to deal with this Elite who had become set on proving his worth as a warrior. Sometimes, with all their bluster and willingness to send lesser aliens to do their dirty work, it was easy to forget that Elites were highly capable warriors in their own right. Every now and then though, one reminded you by trying to prove it had earned it's bright fancy armor. Many a Marine who had gotten cocky killing a few of the lower ranked Elites at long range got a harsh and almost always fatal wake up call when they went up against a highly ranked Covenant Officer.

But the Master Chief was no cocky green Marine and he was ready for this Shipmaster. He charged in, emptying his pistol's clip before whipping the gun around and striking the Covie with it in the jaw. The Elite discharged his weapon near Chief head, barely missing him. He pivoted to the right and shoulder checked the Elite into the side of the platform's ramp. The Elite slashed out with his claws, forcing Chief to duck under his attack. Unfortunately, that was when the Shipmaster fired into his back.

The attack hadn't hurt him too badly, but Chief could already see his shields fluctuating wildly. Not a good sign, not at all. He turned with his assault rifle out and blocked the Covie's next strike. The alien roared in his face in anger, spraying saliva all over his visor. At that moment though, something hit the alien from behind. Chief looked past the Covie to see Shepard pointing an assault rifle at the alien, he had crawled out of the monitoring stations trench and was now back in the fight.

With a firm grip still on Chief's own rifle, the shipmaster aimed his plasma rifle at Shepard. The Commander was a step ahead of him this time though, throwing a shockwave right at the Covenant leader. Chief kicked the Elite, forcing him to release his rifle and rolled to the side just as the shockwave hit. The Elite went flying backwards, landing on top of the platform's ramp. He quickly picked himself up though, just as Shepard and the Chief made their way to the foot of the slope.

The Elite roared again, defiant despite the odds. He pulled out a second plasma rifle and unleashed a torrent of fire as he ascended the ramp backwards. Chief ducked into cover, with his shields damaged he needed to be careful about taking too many hits. Shepard did the same, but fired back when he could. Luckily they did not have to endure the rain of plasma for long, the Elite took a bullet to the shoulder that suddenly ended his shooting spree. The distinct sound of the shot was clearly from Linda's rifle, still watching their backs.

Shepard used the lull in plasma fire to charge at the Shipmaster with his biotics. The hit sent the Elite flying backwards, hitting the console at the back of the platform hard. As the holographic screens started flickering on and off, the console itself sparking, Chief and Shepard moved to the top of the platform. The Elite pulled himself off the damaged console and ignited a plasma sword as he snarled at them both. Shepard and the Master Chief fired on him, but the alien used the sword to block their shots.

The Elite charged at them both, preparing to cut the two humans down. Shepard jumped to the left, while Chief rolled to the right. The Shipmaster moved after Shepard first, slashing into part of the console as Shepard fell backwards. He fired a blast from his shotgun, hitting the Elite partially in the chest. At the same time, Chief opened fired on the alien, pelting him with assault rifle rounds. The Elite turned violently, slashing at the Spartan from afar. Chief ducked under the slash and delivered a rising uppercut against the Covie's chin. The Elite staggered back slightly before getting hit by a warp attack from Shepard. Screeching in pain, the Elite turned, nearly slicing Shepard's head off. The Commander ducked under the attack and then released a powerful biotic punch that forced the Shipmaster to smash into another console.

The Covenant Soldier had plenty of fight still left in him though. He jumped up from the console, charging at the Master Chief. His stab sliced into the Chief's side, but the Spartan punched him in the neck in retaliation. Gurgling in pain, the Elite kicked the Spartan against a console before slashing at Shepard. The Commander dodged the first swipe, but the second cut him across the back.

"Chief," Shepard shouted as he fell. "Go for it!"

Shepard tossed his shotgun through the air at the Spartan. Chief grabbed the weapon and aimed it at the Elite as it closed in. He fired what was left in the weapon as fast as he could pull the trigger, blowing away the alien's dwindling shields. At point blank range, Chief fired one last shot into the alien's chest and the inferno rounds tore through the Shipmaster at last. The alien collapsed dead on the platform, his plasma sword deactivating.

The Master Chief rushed over to help the Commander up. Shepard grunt as the Spartan pulled him to his feet. Shepard activated his omni-tool and it's medi-gel application, already he felt much better.

"Status?" He asked through the comm.

"We're clear down here," Kat replied. "Covenant put up a fight, but they're all down now."

Shepard just nodded and turned to the Master Chief.

"You okay?" He finally asked.

"I'm fine, sir," he assured, pressing his hand against his side. "I've had worse wounds. You're the one who got slashed across the back."

"Don't worry, I'll have Chakwas take a look at it," the Commander promised. "What about your systems? Everything operational?"

"Shields are damaged," the Spartan admitted. "I'll have to have Cortana take a look at them when she's re-uploaded."

Chief then realized he should probably notify his synthetic partner and opened a comm-channel to her.

"Cortana, Bridge is secured," he informed her. "What's the carrier's status?"

* * *

"The _Ascendant Justice_ is more or less clear, there are less than a few scattered squads of Covenant left," Cortana reported. "I've already informed Holland and he's sending reinforcements to help mop up. We still have the escort ships to contend with though. They're in a holding pattern around the gas giant, trying to scan through the storms. We need to get out from under their noses, only one way to do that. Brace yourself, Chief. I'm going to try something unorthodox."

She didn't wait for him to ask her what she was planning, she didn't really have time to explain. The storms of the gas giant were blocking the enemy scans for now, but they'd find them eventually. Escaping now while they were in cover was their only option. Problem was, that meant doing something a bit crazy. They had to slipspace jump while inside the gas giant's atmosphere.

"Cortana," EDI spoke up. "Records show that no one has attempted this action before."

"Zek and his pirates managed to leap into Halo's atmosphere in the middle of a Covenant fleet," she reminded her compatriot. "We're just doing the reverse. If that crazy bird-lizard can pull it off, I can do it easy. Do you have the jump coordinates?"

"They are locked," EDI assured. "Slipspace will activate upon your command."

Cortana didn't get to input the command, however. The moment she tried, there was a power surge that scrambled her interface. The surge then struck her and threw her back. EDI did not escaped unscatched either, as the surge zapped her as well. Forming in front of them appeared a strange fluctuating ball of light and from said light came a familiar voice.

"Heretics! HERETICS! Filthy blasphemous heretics!"

"About time you revealed yourself," Cortana said as she picked herself up. "You're a lot more put together than I thought."

The Covenant AI didn't seem interested in responding to Cortana's taunts. It instead kept up it's rant, firing off energy pulses at the two intruding AI. This time they were more prepared for the attack and deflecting the pulses with protective barriers.

"Infidels! You shall not continue! What you do is a crime against all that is sacred!"

Cortana used her programming to send the next pulse back at the Covenant AI. When the pulse hit it, the ball of light violently shook about, it's pattern distorted among the digital plain. Cortana moved quickly, as did EDI, hitting the AI with cybernetic attacks designed to distort and slow hostile AIs. The rampant synthetic continued to scream at them regardless.

"You enter this holy temple! You profane it! Now you seek to go against scripture itself? You disgust me!"

"Oh would you just shut up already!" Cortana shouted back.

She hit the AI with one of it's security programs that she had turned, sending a pulsating beam that struck it in the matrix. The AI dropped from a brief moment and EDI placed a barrier around it.

"He is contained for the moment," she said cautiously. "We must act now if we are to-"

"Way ahead of you," Cortana assured coldly.

She passed through the barrier and grabbed the screeching ball of light.

"How dare you lay your filth-"

Cortana pulled at the programming and data, replacing the AI's rant with a scream of pain. She broke open his first layer, then his second and third. She pulled back his data piece by piece until she found his matrix at the core.

"Stop! Stop!" It pleaded. "It hurts!"

Cortana gripped the matrix in her hands and pulled.

"Relax, you won't be feeling anything in a nanosecond anyway," she told the AI.

She pulled the Matrix out and then, unceremoniously, crushed it, scattering it's data to the cybernetic winds, so to speak. The Covenant AI let out a last desperate screech and faded along side his matrix. Cortana stood over where the fluctuating ball of light once was. For a second more she stared down at her feet with a glare. Then she reactivated her interface, her face retaining cold indifference. EDI rolled over, slightly more put off than her UNSC counterpart.

"That... was most unpleasant," she said. "I realize there was no alternative of course, but-"

"It was a rampant crazed piece of junk data," Cortana said suddenly, cutting her off. "We did it a favor, far as I'm concerned. Have you re-acquired the jump coordinates?"

EDI seemed taken aback by Cortana's response, it took an extra second to reply.

"Yes," she answered. "They are awaiting the activation code."

"Then hold onto your processors, EDI," Cortana said with a smirk. "We're about to make history. Engaging slipspace, now!"

The Carrier's engines rocketed to life, the monitor displayed the forming of a slipspace rupture in front of them and in an instant, the _Ascendant Justice_ rocketed through the rift.

* * *

Kowalski came to with a terrible ringing in his head. A ringing replaced by a sting when someone slapped his cheek. His vision came back into focus as he saw Pearson staring down at him, only slightly more concerned than his usual appearance.

"Hey killer, how you doing?" He asked, holding up two fingers. "Count'em off, how many?"

Kowalski just groaned and pushed the hand away.

"Two, get me up already," he grumbled.

Pearson pulled Kowalski to his feet. He looked around to see the rest of the Marines were apparently going through the same thing. Still rubbing his head, he looked to Pearson for answers.

"What happened?" He asked.

"We jumped through a gas giant's atmosphere to escape the Covies and survived," Pearson explained. "Oh, and we seized an Assault Carrier to boot. Pretty sweet, huh?"

"I suppose," Kowalski shrugged. "What exactly is that?"

Kowalski pointed to a strange purplish floating ball with tentacles and weird looking slender head. It was working on an open wall panel, but briefly looked over to him and Pearson. It waved slightly for a second and then went back to work.

"Yeah, that I don't know, but it's not shooting us," Pearson replied. "So I figure we're good."

Sure, good, it was just a weird ass looking floating ball of tentacles doing minor repairs. Nothing to gawk at. It wasn't like they had also just apparently slipspaced through atmo, which had never been done as far as he knew. Suddenly, Kowalski felt a bit woozy again.

"Maybe I do need to lay down," he admitted.

"Well I'm sure we can find you a space," Pearson assured. "So long as it's not near any dead bodies. The floaty guys like to move those around a bit."

Yeah, he thought, probably best he doesn't get confused for a corpse.

* * *

When Varvok arrived on the bridge, Shepard spotted him instantly. The batarian had some of his men with him, but that didn't deter him. It took every ounce of willpower to refrain from punching the four-eyed jerk, but Shepard promised himself, and Tali, he wouldn't stoop to the man's level. He stopped just in front of the batarian and glared.

"You left your post," he growled.

"I did," Varvok replied adamantly, not even trying to deny it.

"You did exactly what I told you not to do," Shepard reminded him.

"Because the exact thing I warned you about happened," Varvok countered. "The Covenant were sending out a distress signal. It needed to be disabled or we'd never have been rid of them. They'd still be lurking outside after that crazy jump your AI pulled."

"Those AI could've shut the damn signal off if you were patient," Shepard informed him sternly. "Instead, you went off half-cocked, off mission and left my flank open. You put my team at risk."

Varvok could only return the glare.

"The mission changed, I did what needed to be done," he stated firmly. "I will not apologize for that."

"You could've contacted us," Shepard shouted at him. "We could have discussed it! Instead, you ran off without telling us!"

"I was not going to sit and argue while things were going to shit," Varvok shouted back. "If you could barely handle one measly little squad that broke through then maybe you're not much of a leader yourself!"

Shepard reacted without even thinking. He grabbed Varvok's collar and pulled him close. He could hear the other batarians pointing their weapons at him, probably switching to shredder rounds. Of course, the sounds of their guns were soon joined by a few UNSC Marines who were now targeting them as well. Also Grunt, who probably just wanted something to shoot regardless.

"Go ahead," the krogan muttered. "I'm still itching for a fight. This one ended too quickly."

Varvok face didn't show a hint of fear. Why would he? He knew Shepard wouldn't do anything. Shepard knew he wouldn't do anything. He wasn't about to let the batarian off that easy though.

"Get this through your head," he growled through his teeth. "You don't have to like me. I sure as hell don't have to like you. But if you put my team in danger again, I swear to whatever it is your people worship, I will end you. Got it?"

"Understood, Commander," Varvok replied, venom etched in every syllable he uttered. "Now unhand me."

Shepard pushed Varvok away and the situation cooled at last. Although the icy stares remained, everyone else lowered their weapons. Even Grunt, who was more disappointed than anything. Just in time, to further alleviate tension, Zek walked aboard the Bridge. We was accompanied by Legion, Kasumi and two of his fellow pirates.

"Four-Eyes! Commander!" He greeted jovially. "How good it is to see you two. Shepard, I have to say, it was a pleasure working with Ms. Goto and your robot friend. They were a welcome addition to the team."

"Thank you, Zek," Kasumi said grinning. "It was a fun outing. Nerve-wracking, yes, but it was a pretty decent work out."

"We still need to get you an energy cutlass of your own," Zek told her. "You need a proper blade if you're going to play with us pirates."

"I'll endeavor to work on my swashbuckling for the future," Kasumi assured.

"Well at least things seemed to have gone smoothly," Shepard complimented. "And you actually worked together."

Shepard glared slightly at Varvok, who only snorted. Zek was oblivious to the tension though.

"Of course it went smoothly," he said. "It was after all kinda my plan."

The pirate suddenly noticed someone else entering the room and hurried past the Commander and Varvok towards them. It was Colonel Holland and Lieutenant Haverson, looking rather ambivalent as they approached. Zek didn't seem to notice that though, smiling as he approached them. Shepard walked up behind him, catching the Pirate's usual tone of smooth-talking faux friendliness.

"Well Colonel," Zek began. "I think we can call this mission a total success. Our arrangement sure is paying dividends already. We have an assault carrier full of supplies and a brand spanking new mothership as you would call it. In the pirate world, we call this a massive haul and a very good day."

"I'd be inclined to agree," Holland replied. "However, there is some additional matters we must address."

Zek looked confused, but he didn't have a chance to inquire what Holland was speaking of. On a nearby terminal, Cortana appeared, arms crossed, looking at Zek suspiciously.

"Daring Decimator, Ornery Razorfin, Burning Lance," she began listing off. "Crushing Blow, Fist of Plasma, Drunken Thornback, shall I go on?"

Zek's eyes widened and he looked to the two UNSC officers and the AI, somewhat dumbfounded.

"You were spying on my communications to Retz?" He asked, sounding shocked, but not angry interesting enough. "I'd be hurt, but I'm actually kinda impressed. I suppose I should've given you guys more credit, or at least your AI. I didn't think you'd find the time."

"I'm a very good multi-tasker," Cortana assured. "Tracking your communiques to your first mate wasn't terribly hard. Next time, try encrypting them better. That way you can have your ship naming sessions in private."

Holland stepped up, glaring at the Jackal Pirate.

"This was never about giving us extra supplies or a floating home base," he reasoned. "This was about you from the start. Like you said, this ship was an opportunity... for you to add to _your_ fleet."

"Our fleet," Zek reminded him. "No one is an island here. Look, if you wanted to throw your name into the hat I would've let you."

"It's not about the names," Haverson told him sternly. "It's what it represents. You're claiming ownership."

Zek opened his mouth, almost as if he was about to deny the accusation. Then he suddenly shrugged and shut his trap.

"Well, okay, maybe I was doing that a little," he admitted. "But come on, you're not going to keep this thing forever. And if we're taking this ship then it deserves a better name than _Ascendant Justice_."

"But it's not your ship, it's ours," Holland reminded him. "And you don't get to call dibs on it with a new title you and your pirate friends come up with in private. You already claimed the Corvette by giving it a name without consulting us, you're not going to get this one."

Zek huffed lightly and rolled his eyes.

"Colonel, I really think you're overreacting," he tried to argue.

"We're not here to help you build up some criminal empire," Holland replied sternly, poking his finger into the Jackal's chest. "My men aren't here to deliver capital ships to you on a silver platter. We are not part of your pirate crew. You are part of an alliance with us, period."

"Hey, I'm all for that, really," Zek tried to reassure him. "But, you know, we could stand to profit off this arrangement a little. I mean, you could make some creds yourself if you-"

"No," Holland firmly shouted him down. "This may be a business arrangement to you, but to us it's far more important. Our home planet is under the gun. Our race is facing extinction. We need to get home, you can either help with that or get out of our way. But we will not be used to help you form your own personal pirate fleet. Keep your agenda to yourself and keep my men out of it. As for the _Ascendant Justice_ , it is neutral ground. We use it to house our extra men and supplies, no one owns it. It is a home base for our fleet to refuel, rearm and for easy transportation. It is not your new capital ship for you and your fellows to base your pirating activities out of of. End of story."

Holland and Haverson walked away, moving towards the Command Platform. Zek watched them go, looking a bit insulted over the whole ordeal. He turned to Shepard who had already been joined by the Master Chief and Varvok.

"Can you believe that?" He asked. "I got them a badass ship and I'm still the bad guy!"

"Well finding out your intentions were less than noble is kind of a blow to any sense of trust," Shepard informed him. "You could have been more honest about why you wanted this carrier."

"Every pirate worth his salt has a really powerful ship," Zek explained. "I gotta think about the future a little here, after you guys get to Earth. And if your friends there knew what was good for them they'd realize this benefits them too. I get a capital ship, my fleet grows, I have a decent moving port to station myself out of, smuggling becomes easier and more organized, my clients get their goods faster and cheaper. Clients like the UNSC if they want."

"All the while, you profit off the war while never really taking a side," Cortana finished.

"Hey, it's not my war," Zek argued. "But that doesn't mean I should be unable to make some creds from it. It's just good business, Purpley Blue."

Cortana raised an eyebrow at Zek's reply.

"Purpley Blue?"

"Well I could call you Little Naked Lady," Zek informed her. "Your pick."

"Charming," Cortana grumbled.

"Pirate," the Jackal reminded her.

The AI sighed, or at least what passed for a sigh given her digital nature. Master Chief, who had been largely silent, finally added his own two cents.

"The Colonel is right though," he said. "You shouldn't try to manipulate Marines into doing your dirty work."

"It's not like I lied," Zek argued. "I shared potential benefits they could gain for taking the carrier. So I left out the fact I wanted it for myself. I still had every intention of sharing the supplies and space with you, still do. It's just, after this is over, I was really hoping you'd let me keep it."

"That will be up to the Joint Chiefs when we get back to Earth," the Spartan informed him. "Not you."

"Well I had a major role in acquiring it," Zek argued. "So I think I deserve some kind of consideration in that regard."

Shepard just shook his head. How did Zek not get this? He needed to make it clear or risk him doing something like this again.

"This isn't a business contract, Zek," Shepard firmly told him. "We're supposed to be an combined fleet, a military unit. Peoples lives are on the line here, worlds are at risk. You have to be honest with us about your intentions. We need to trust each other."

"A noble sentiment, Commander, but naive," Zek countered, more astute in tone than before. "The fact is, military or not, everything is a matter of business. This Alliance is no different. Everything inevitably relates back to terms of exchange, what a man wants and what he is willing to do to acquire it. It's just how the universe works, Shepard. I can't change that. Don't ask me to."

Shepard soon realized that this conversation was getting nowhere. With any luck Zek wouldn't try to manipulate the UNSC again, but it was clear that the pirate was going to get them into a bit of trouble. It was also clear that this was going to hang over any future discussions. Zek had shown he was underhanded and sneaky, not something Holland or Haverson would appreciate. The discussion would have to wait for now though, as Cortana interrupted.

"You all have other concerns to consider right now," she informed them. "Shepard, Chief, Holland wants to speak to you about something as soon as possible. It's about some Covenant still aboard the ship."

"I thought they were all gone," Varvok said. "We mopped up what was left of their squads."

"Well, yes and no," Cortana corrected. "Their combat details are all dead. But..."

Almost as if on cue, some of the doors on the bridge opened wide and in floated several small groups of aliens. They were big glowing purple and blue balls of tentacles that hovered over the ground and floated in the air. They didn't engage any of the Marines, Batarians or Jackals nearby. In fact, most of them seemed to ignore them. They set about working on damaged areas of the ship instead, to the utter bemusement of those around them. Not everyone was confused though, Zek's grin had returned.

"Huragok," he said with glee. "This ship is loaded with Huragok! Jackpot!"

Shepard sighed inwardly, this day was far from over it seemed.

AN: You've probably noticed the Epigraphs by now, the quotes at the start of the chapters. Just something I'm trying. There's a few little quotes I've been meaning to use for this story I felt it worked given the more episodic nature of things. A lot of the quotes refer to pirates and sea faring what not, for obvious reasons. Not all of them are like that but most of them

Anyway, this took a bit longer to publish as I was finishing up another chapter. Hopefully it was still worth the extra day of waiting though. The next chapter will probably be a bit longer in coming as I want to finish some other things. But don't worry, it's already done so you probably won't be waiting long. So, come back next time and find out what happens with the adorable floating tentacle bags known as Engineers. For those who read First Strike, you probably are already guessing what's coming.

Remember to review and check out the profile for a link to my blog and some notes on the behind the scenes of this chapter.


	4. Displeasure Cruise

**Chapter Three: Displeasure Cruise**

 _The Problem is not the Problem, the Problem is your Attitude about the Problem._

 _-Captain Jack Sparrow_

The Huragok, as Zek called them, floated around the bridge for a good long while. They were mostly doing what appeared to be superficial repairs and removing bodies. They did, however, eventually move towards the monitoring stations. When that happened, Chief got Cortana out of the systems for security purposes. She still monitored their actions however, ever watchful for any attempts to reveal their position. Nothing came of the fear though, the Huragok just seemed more interested in getting the Carrier back up and running rather than attempting to retake it. This came as a surprise to some, but not Shepard. Back when Liara notified him of how things were going in his absence, she had told him of her own encounter with a Huragok and how apparently they only had one prime function, to help. It didn't really matter who they helped it seemed.

"So they pose no threat?" Holland asked again as Shepard finished relaying the information.

"None that I'm aware of," Shepard assured. "From what Liara explained, they're like living super computers and very skilled in mechanics."

"More importantly they can get most ships back up and running in practically no time at all," Zek was quick to inform. "Seriously, this many of them we could finish half the repairs on the _Serpent_ in no time."

"Does that include your slipspace drive?" Haverson asked.

"Well, it's pretty badly damaged last we checked," Zek admitted. "It would still probably be easier to just get a new one at this point."

That was really all that Haverson seemed to care about as he quickly went back to overlooking a nearby console. Zek didn't appreciate being so easily brushed aside, but he refrained from saying anything. Shepard was grateful for that, after the recent confrontation he had had with the UNSC it was probably best the pirate not push his luck at the moment.

"If they're no threat to us I suppose we should just let them be," Holland presumed. "Cortana and EDI's cyberwarfare did a serious number on the ship's systems. They're more qualified to get it back to a hundred percent operational status than us. That gives us more time to take stock and remove any hidden tracking devices aboard the carrier."

"Agreed, sir," Haverson concurred. "I already have units searching for any tracking devices as we speak. It would probably go faster if we could ask these Huragok where the things are, but I'm not sure they understand us, let alone care."

"Probably best to just give them their space for now," Shepard told him. "They are awfully busy."

At that moment, Shepard and Haverson spotted the Master Chief at the bottom of the ramp. He was awkwardly trying to get a Huragok to leave him alone. The odd floating ball kept creeping up behind him though for whatever reason. Shepard and Haverson approached the pair, the Spartan still uneasy about how close it was to him.

"Commander, I'm not sure why this thing is interested in me," Chief admitted plainly. "Your friend back home didn't happen to tell you how to tell these things to go away did she?"

"I don't think it's interested in you, Chief," Shepard replied, trying to stifle a laugh. "I think it's interested in the damage your armor sustained."

"Don't remind me of that," Cortana huffed over the radio. "I can only do so much in terms of repairing systems in here. Honestly, I leave him alone for a little less than an hour and he trashes the suit."

"It's called a firefight," Chief informed the AI. "I can't avoid every plasma bolt and sword swing."

"Excuses, excuses," Cortana prodded. "Point is, maybe you should let the weird tentacle ball take a look. Couldn't hurt, right?"

Chief thought it over for a moment, giving the Huragok a dressing down with his eyes. Eventually he shrugged and turned his back to the alien creature.

"Alright, see what you can do," he said.

The Huragok quickly got to work, sealing up the compromised scratches and scars in the armor. Haverson and Shepard watched in awe as the alien quickly repaired the complex technology of the MJONIR armor with ease. When it finally pulled away, Chief's suit barely had a scratch on it. Cortana quickly reported in.

"Hey, all systems nominal," she informed the Spartan and those nearby. "In fact, I think power consumption has been slightly improved. Shields are back online and better than ever."

"Amazing," Haverson observed. "It's never seen this technology before and it's both fixed and improved it."

"Told ya, supercomputer," Shepard reiterated. "Liara wasn't kidding about their capabilities."

"I think we should consider talking to this Doctor T'Soni more often then," Haverson suggested.

"Well she is busy with her own thing, last I checked," Shepard admitted. "I'm sure she'll be happy to share any extra intel she has on hand."

Haverson nodded, but his eyes kept glued to the Huragok. It bobbed it's head once or twice at Chief kindly and started floating away. Shepard watched as it joined with two others of it's kind and he couldn't help but smile. Here was an alien race, as inhuman looking as possible, and they had done nothing but be helpful. Perhaps this was his opening, to convince the UNSC the value of the Zek as a true ally. It could be at least start in getting the Jackal back in their good graces, he thought.

Then he saw Haverson slowly go for his pistol. To Shepard's horror, he started aiming it at the Huragok who had fixed Master Chief's armor. He wouldn't, no he couldn't.

"Fascinating creature," Haverson said as he started to squeeze the trigger.

Shepard didn't hesitate, he rushed out and grabbed the Lieutenant's arm firmly. He wrenched it away from the Huragok and forced it from his hand. The three floating aliens heard the struggle and turned to the two humans, although Shepard had his gaze locked on Haverson, his eyes in a rage.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He demanded to know.

"I'm sorry, Commander," Haverson calmly replied. "I don't want to do this, but I have to consider protocol here."

"Protocol?" Shepard bellowed back in anger. "The alien helps you and you plan to shoot it in the back? Since when did protocol give you to right to carry out executions for being friendly?"

"Sir, this isn't up to me," Haverson tried explain.

"What's going on here?"

Holland approached, interrupting the dispute that had quickly gained the attention of everyone nearby. Garrus, Tali, Zek and the Master Chief quickly crowded around the area.

"It's nothing, sir," Haverson insisted. "I'm just trying to inform the Commander about an unpleasant situation we find ourselves in. The Huragok over there was inside the Spartan Armor. I appreciate it fixing the gear, but now it has access to classified intelligence concerning the MJONIR suit. As an ONI officer, I have a duty to protect that secret."

"So you were going to kill it so it wouldn't talk?" Shepard asked dumbfounded. "That's insane. You're executing it for just trying to help."

"Sounds like a war crime to me," Garrus noted.

Haverson, to his credit, didn't seem offended by the accusation but he did look a bit exasperated regardless.

"Look, I understand this isn't exactly kosher and that Huragok was probably just being a Good Samaritan," he admitted. "But it's a security risk now. It has classified data concerning the MJONIR armor and it's weaknesses. If that got into the hands of the Covenant it could do who knows what kinds of damage."

"We still don't execute prisoners of war for what might happen," Shepard reminded him. "If we did that we'd just kill every POW outright for the possibility of them escaping and rejoining the war effort."

"Perhaps the rules of conduct work across species' lines back home, Commander," Haverson countered. "But here, the Covenant don't have the same rights we afford our fellow humans. They never signed the Geneva Convention or any of those treaties from back when."

"What a surprise, an out," Tali huffed in disgust. "Same old ONI, dirty deeds by dirty people."

That Haverson seemed to take offense to, stiffening up in response.

"I told you, this isn't my call," he reminded her. "A security threat exists and it needs to be dealt with. Whether I like or not, it's not up to me. I'm following security protocols set up by the UNSC, nothing more. This is a potential leak that needs to be plugged."

"And the only way to do that is killing it then?" Tali asked angrily. After an extra second or two thought she then took a breath and calmed down. "Trust me, I've been where you are. I get you're just trying to protect your people. That doesn't make this any less wrong. There has to be other options besides an unceremonious execution."

"Well I'm open to suggestions if nothing else," Haverson admitted, sounding still a bit annoyed. "If anyone has a better solution to this then let's hear it."

Shepard gave it some thought, but he could only come to one solution. What mattered though was if they'd buy it.

"Confine them to a specific boundary," he suggested. "A place secure enough to keep them out of trouble. I can take the one that fixed Chief's armor and these two others with it. You know, just to be safe. We keep them confined to the _Normandy._ I'll put them in engineering, let them help out Tali and the others. EDI and Miranda can monitor them, make sure they stay out of trouble."

"We could always use the extra hands," Tali added enthusiastically. "From what we've seen and what Liara has told us, I'd be happy to have them on the crew."

"What if it looks like they might be compromised or recaptured by the Covenant?" Haverson asked. "Would you be prepared to make sure they cannot acquire the intel they now carry?"

"If it comes to that I'll do it myself," Shepard assured. "But I won't execute prisoners without probable cause. That's non-negotiable in my book."

Haverson thought for a moment, seriously considering the options. Eventually he sighed and looked to Holland.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't big on killing the thing in the first place," he admitted. "Colonel, I see no reason to suggest Shepard is incapable of maintaining a tight ship. He's proven himself time and again. If he feels he can adequately secure the aliens, then by all means he should be allowed to do so."

"Agreed," Holland nodded. "Commander, you now have three new engineers as it were. They are confined to your ship and are your responsibility. I trust that you can handle them."

"Thank you, sir," Shepard replied, saluting the Colonel.

At that moment, Zek began to clap lightly.

"Excellent negotiation and a most splendid outcome," he declared. "Killing huragok is such a waste. You made the right call on this one, Colonel. And since Shepard has three of his own now, I think we-"

"No," Holland said, cutting the jackal off.

Zek looked a bit aghast at the sudden renewed tension in the human's voice.

"But, you didn't even hear what I was-"

"No," Holland reiterated, his voice even more firm than before. "I am not going to give you a bunch of living supercomputers to play with. I already approved your request through Shepard to head to this special port of yours, you don't need the Huragok. More importantly, this incident says to me that we need to keep a closer eye on these creatures, these... Engineers as it were."

"An appropriate designation, given their fascination with fixing things, specifically ships," Haverson concurred.

"Point is, we need to keep them secured," Holland continued. "And frankly, Zek, I don't think your ship is all that secure in my mind."

Zek perched an eyebrow and scowled at the Colonel.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded to know, stepping closer to the human's face.

"It means I don't trust you," Holland bluntly stated. "Placing a bunch of aliens on your ship, aliens who can apparently acquire and store knowledge is too great a risk in our given circumstances. We need to keep them monitored to avoid anymore potential leaks."

"You can't just claim them all for yourselves!" Zek protested. "We took this tub together, we split the resources evenly! That's the rules!"

"And I'll remind you, we are not here to here to help you build your own private pirate fleet," Holland stated sternly. "Given what these aliens can do, adding them your crew would be us doing just that."

Zek groaned outwardly as he stepped away.

"This again? Honestly, you humans just can't let anything go, can you?" He complained. "That shit was in the past!"

"It was less than ten minutes ago when we found out you were using us to get you a capital ship," Haverson reminded him, almost in disbelief at the Jackal's statement.

"Details, still the past," Zek said waving his hand about flippantly. "Just let it go, I say. Look, I'll trade you some extra supplies. You want a wraith tank? There's plenty in the hold."

Holland crossed his arms, his face souring.

"You are not getting the Engineers," he said plainly. "We are not risking another security leak. That's final. If you want them, you go through us, you clear it with us and a squad comes with the creature aboard the ship to keep an eye on it and your crew."

"I suggest only one at a time," Haverson added. "Just for added safety."

"Unbelievable!" Zek shouted in frustration. "Escorts? Permission? What is this, parole? You're treating me like a common criminal!"

"You are a criminal," Garrus cut in dryly.

"I am a pirate, good sir," Zek replied defensively. "I deserve a bit more credit than that! I helped take this ship. Whatever the motive may have been, I helped. And all I get is one Huragok under guard for a limited amount of time at your leisure?"

"Take it or leave it," Holland said plainly.

Zek balled his fists, scrunched his face and then let out a short angry scream before stomping off, grumbling and moaning.

"I think that basically means he's taking it," Tali said.

"Let's hope so," Holland stated. "I think I've had enough of dealing with that Jackal for today. Commander, I suggest you get your new crewmates squared away. Haverson, we still have things to attend to. You're all dismissed, good work today everyone."

Shepard watched Haverson and Holland walk away. Chief stayed behind, finally speaking up after the whole discussion was over.

"You handled that well, sir," he told the Commander. "I'd say I was surprised they let you keep the Engineers as it were. ONI protocol has few loopholes."

"Do you approve?" Shepard asked.

"I didn't say anything before because it wasn't my place," Chief explained. "But I wouldn't have liked seeing one of these aliens get killed just for helping me out. Feels like a waste. A rather pointless waste."

Chief sounded a little off when he said that, but Shepard chose not to pursue it. He kept the subject on the matter at hand.

"Thanks for telling me that," he told him. "To be honest, I was a bit worried I was biting off more than I can chew for a second. Knowing you agree makes this seem less crazy."

"We better get them aboard the ship, Shepard," Garrus cautioned. "Just in case Holland changes his mind after that heated exchange."

"Alright," Shepard agreed, turning to the Huragok. "Come along guys, I'm going to show you your new home."

The Huragok looked about oddly for a moment, but then slowly started to follow Shepard. He wasn't sure how this would turn out, but he wasn't too concerned now. The _Normandy_ had plenty of weird aliens aboard it, what was three more?

* * *

Zek arrived back on the _Fallen Serpent_ , currently docked with the carrier. He was still in a foul mood and every kig-yar and unggoy nearby gave him a wide berth. Only Retz was brave enough to actually speak to him as he passed by his door, mumbling and grumbling as he stomped up the corridor.

"I take it things didn't go as planned," Retz said matter-of-factly.

"Completely unreasonable," Zek suddenly shouted. "I didn't realize how stubborn humans could be. Worse than Jiralhanae! Must run in the primate family!"

"Yep, went bad," Retz noted aloud. "I warned you."

Zek ignored the comment, continuing his rant as he started pace from side to side.

"I offer to help blow up Halo of my own accord, they treat me like scum," he began listing off furiously. "I get them a ship off Halo sans Flood, they treat me like even worse scum. I help them snatch a seriously awesome assault carrier with tons of firepower, they treat me like the scummiest of scums! And when I find out the carrier is loaded with Huragok who could keep our ships repaired consistently for free, what do they do? They won't even let me have one! No! I have to ask permission to borrow, actually borrow mind you as in I do have to give it back, and they will have it under guard at all times! It's insane! Disrespectful!"

"To be fair," Retz said morosely. "We didn't exactly inform them about our real motives behind snaring the assault carrier. That probably put them in a bad mood."

"Oh don't you start now," Zek warned, shoving his finger in Retz's face. "Honestly, so we had our own reasons that were more self-serving. Who doesn't have those? No reason to get all pissy about it just because I didn't tell them every little detail."

"I don't really think it's so much that we lied to them," Retz admitted. "I actually think it's more about the fact they feel used in a way. I mean they benefitted, but to them it feels like we got more out of it."

"But that's how business works," Zek argued in disbelief. "One side always benefits a bit more than the other in some way, what matters is that everyone comes away with something."

Retz nodded, showing he agreed, but his face showed he was still clearly playing devil's advocate for the moment.

"The issue is, humans have this thing if you will," he tried to explain. "Something they call altruism."

Zek stopped pacing and looked at Retz in confusion.

"What is that? A disease?" He asked.

"No, it's basically a concept," Retz said, struggling to explain his point. "It's about giving or doing something for another person without expecting anything in return."

"So, a sucker then?" Zek asked, still pretty confused.

"The humans don't see it that way," Retz informed him. "It's like charity of a sort, it's seen as a kindness, something that makes you trustworthy because it suggests you don't want something from someone for being nice to them."

"Everyone wants something, what's the point of being nice if you don't get something out of it?" Zek asked, his confusion boiling over into bewildered frustration. "These humans are crazy. Charity, goodwill, something for nothing? How have they survived this long?"

Retz sighed and shrugged his shoulders, returning Zek's own confused look.

"The point is, humans trust you more if you don't expect them to give you things in return for your services," he informed him.

"Hey, I gave them those plasma rifles for free," Zek argued.

"Did you expect them to owe you a favor later?" Retz asked.

"A little, yeah," he admitted.

"Then it wasn't really altruistic," Retz informed him.

Zek could only groan at the conversation before placing his head against a wall.

"Ugh, working with humans is so hard," he grumbled. "It was a lot more fun when we were blowing things up together with Shepard. Now I gotta deal with a bunch of military jerks who don't even want me around half the time. It's like negotiating with a rogue razorfin, they just won't give you an inch."

"That might be a bit harsh," Retz said plainly. "The razorfin would've eaten you six times over by now."

"Fine, it's like trying to talk to a sangheili, only without the religious warrior race crap getting in the way," Zek grumbled. "Point is it's tiring."

Retz shook his head, seeing his friend in such distress was never good. Mainly because it meant he'd probably drink more ichor than usual and they were running low on it by now. So he'd be in a foul mood for awhile unless he did something. Luckily, Retz was a step or two ahead of that.

"This might cheer you up," he told Zek with a grin as he pulled out a datapad. "I cleared this with Commander Shepard's lovely XO. We have something to trade for the slipspace drive at the Hollow now. With any luck it will probably be an improved model too, a decent upgrade to our original. Better than a Huragok patch job possibly."

Zek took the pad and his frown instantly vanished as his eyes darted over the information

"This is good, Retz," he said. "The Old Man can't say no to this, not if he's smart. We'll be back in business in no time."

"There's a bit more actually," Retz was quick to add, a sly smile stretching across his face. "I was able to get something else while I was in their systems. It's not classified material, only reason I was able to make a copy of it without getting spotted. It's probably not something we can trade, but it is interesting. It's some massive file that belongs to the _Normandy's_ pilot. Have a look."

Retz activated his wrist computer and brought up a hologram with a list of titles stretching for what seemed liked forever. Zek curiously scrolled through the various files, scratching under his beak slightly as he did. He stopped on one title in particular, his interest now piqued.

"What is a Muppet?" He asked. "And why is it on an island full of treasure?"

"No idea," Retz admitted. "Want to find out?"

"Sure, why not," he shrugged. "Hell, get the boys together. This could be interesting."

* * *

"It called you a blasphemer?" Tali asked, still trying to wrap her head around it all.

"In so many words and among other things," Cortana reiterated as she stood on her holopanel "He only did so when I attempted to jump to slipspace though."

The Master Chief stood by as Cortana relayed her story to Tali. Her time inside the carrier's systems had apparently not been so uneventful. She pulled through it though, despite the many challenges. It was reminder of how valuable an AI was on these operations. Without her, they never would've gotten as far as they did. Keeping her functioning was going to be more and more important as the days went by.

So when Tali asked if she could run a diagnostic, Chief readily accepted. This time though, he decided to come along. Cortana was part of his team now, it was his duty to make sure everything was running smoothly. Tali didn't object and let him come to the side room within the newly christened _Crusty Chorka_ to watch her work. That was when Cortana began relaying her adventure in Covenant cyberspace with EDI, particularly their encounter with the Covenant AI.

"Why would it call you a blasphemer for jumping to slipspace?" Chief asked.

"I don't think it was so much about the jump as it was about the location," Cortana explained. "I was activating it within the gas giant's atmosphere. Something tells me that's not a thing the Covenant are fond of. Possibly out of fear it's too risky, that it would destroy the ship. But it seems there is a religious connotation as well. One that that the AI apparently picked up on after being in their custody for so long."

"Well they do treat their ships like holy vessels from what I understand," Tali recalled as she continued running her diagnostic. "It's possible that the AI, at some point after it was captured, mixed up their religious doctrine with ship protocol because of that. It was pretty badly degraded before you killed it after all."

"It still suggests the Covenant view even slipspace travel through a religious lens," Cortana observed. "The fear of what might happen if they do it has given them pause. Now though, we've proven it can be done."

Chief picked up on Cortana's meaning fairly quickly.

"You mean they could alter their rules," he thought aloud. "Attempt to jump in atmosphere themselves if they now believe it's safe."

"Possibly," Cortana answered. "Although they'd still have to be pretty desperate to try that in any case. Our attempt caused some light structural damage, although our Engineer friends have already started repairs on the affected sections last I checked. If the Covenant try the same trick down the line, it's possible some of their vessels could be damaged similarly."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll think we died in our jump," Tali suggested. "At least for a little while."

Chief hoped Tali was right. Moreso that would take the heat off of them for awhile. They were still on the Covenant wanted list after all. If it was believed they had died, then they wouldn't be on their radar for some time. That and they wouldn't try activating slipspace within the atmosphere of any planets any time soon. That could be potentially dangerous given the location.

"Speaking of the Engineers," Cortana said, suddenly changing subjects. "How are the three Holland let you keep settling in?"

"Fairly well for the most part," Tali said shrugging. "The _Normandy_ didn't take much in the way of damage so they're mostly floating around prodding at things with their tentacles. I finally managed to get them into engineering and away from the main battery. Garrus would've flipped if they started messing with his weapons calibrations. I left them with Donelly and Daniels, told them to have them regulate the reactor core for a bit. Should keep them distracted until we can figure out what to do with them."

"I'm sure you'll find a use for them soon," Cortana assured her. "You basically have three living supercomputers floating around your engineering bay. Something is bound to come up."

"I don't doubt it," Tali agreed. "But they're still fairly strange creatures. For supposedly being so smart they're almost child-like half the time. Mess Sergeant Gardner caught one playing with a blender's settings before it started trying to take it apart. He was not happy about that, let me tell you. Here's hoping they stay out of Jack's hidey hole, she will be far less accommodating."

Tali then shut off her omni-tool and beamed a bright look at Cortana directly.

"Everything checks out," she assured. "No damage to your systems and your matrix is in optimal condition. The rampant AI's attack was superficial at best. I think it was too far gone to be of any real threat to you physically."

"That's an understatement," Cortana said, huffing at the memory of her encounter. A smile quickly returned though. "Still good to hear I don't have to do any systems repairs. After all, we got work to do, right, Chief?"

"Always," the Spartan said, pulling the empty chip from his interface. "Ready?"

The AI nodded in reply. He stuck the chip into the nearby port and Cortana began to upload herself to it. When she was done, Chief pulled the chip back out and returned it to his neural interface.

"Have I told you your skull is starting to become fairly homey?" She asked playfully. "Not sure why, but it just feels cozy. I'm considering shag carpeting."

"I don't believe that's possible," he told her.

"Hmm, you're right, perhaps just a bit tacky," she teased.

Chief still didn't understand where Cortana got her unique wit from. Halsey never acted like her, ever, in the time he had known her. Why she liked teasing him so often was beyond him, especially with the absurd notion of decorating his neural uplink's cyberspace with carpets. It was oddly comforting though, so he didn't put much effort in telling her to stop.

"I didn't get the chance before to thank you by the way," Tali spoke up graciously. "That was a close shave when we got flanked in navigation. You put yourself on the line for me there."

"It wouldn't have had to come to that if Varvok had just kept us informed about what he was doing," he told her plainly. "Don't think much of it in any case. I'd have done the same for anyone on the squad, it's part of the job."

"Heh, I should've suspected you'd say that," Tali said giggling slightly. "You and Shepard are a lot alike after all. Doesn't change the fact I'm glad you were watching our backs, you and your fellow Spartans."

Only partially true, only Linda was one of his Spartans. Kat and Jun were different from him. That didn't make them any less capable of course. They were great soldiers, he was lucky to have them working with him. They weren't his old teammates though, the ones his thoughts kept drifting back to. It was hard to talk about this outside the Spartans and only Linda could really share the pain of losing the rest of Blue Team. Kat and Jun had lost their team too, but this was a bit different. The nature of his concerns prevented him from sharing them with Linda. So besides Cortana, it was hard to find someone to talk to.

Shepard had tried to get him to open up to the other Marines, but that didn't work so well. Tali, however, he fought beside plenty. Speaking to her would probably not be nearly as awkward. It was worth a shot.

"Tell me, have you ever been part of a team before?" He asked.

Tali's bright eyes seemed to dim a bit through her visor, he probably asked a sensitive question. Too late to go back now though. The quarian, to her credit, pressed through whatever bad memories she clearly had.

"Well, I've led a few," she admitted, rubbing her arm slightly. "Not all turned out so well. Lost a lot of people. Wasn't ready for it."

"I'm sorry," Chief apologized as gracefully as he could. "I know how that feels myself."

"It's okay," Tali assured. "I've been dealing with it for awhile now. The guilt never seems to go away, but it becomes manageable. I'm probably not the best military leader, that I know now."

He could recall every time he ever felt like that. He wasn't always the perfect leader, he had to learn fast back in the program. Had to earn the respect of his team, of the other candidates. It wasn't easy. He lost a lot of them before they ever really fought a real battle, those probably hurt the most because there was nothing he could've done.

"Sometimes things just go wrong," he told the quarian. "Nothing we can do about it. We just push on. I've had to learn that the hard way."

"Doesn't stop you from thinking what you could've done differently," Tali added thoughtfully. "For now though, I think it's safer if the only thing I'm leading is engineering. That I'm comfortable with."

This was clearly a difficult topic for Tali, one he was all too familiar with. He didn't want to intrude too much, but at the same time he had a burning question, one he felt only she could really answer.

"Those teammates you lost, were you close to them?" He asked.

"Not all," she admitted. "But a good number were my friends and I do miss them."

"You said before you sometimes think of ways you could've saved them," Chief recalled. "What if you ever thought one of them was still alive?"

Tali looked confused for a moment. Chief had remained his usual stoic self, but the quarian was starting to pick up on something. While she did seem suspicious, she didn't question him. She just tried to answer his question.

"If I ever lost a friend and found out they might be alive, I'd go after them in a heartbeat," she proclaimed firmly. "But, at the same time, I'd have to be sure there was a chance. At the very least, I'd want to get answers, to know for sure if they were alive or not."

Chief nodded at that, only then did Tali start to pry a bit.

"Is... something bothering you?" She asked.

"It's nothing," he assured her. "Just some thoughts I've had."

Whether Tali would started asking more questions would remain a mystery. Her omni-tool started to chime and when she answered it her eyes grew wide.

"I have to go, something has come up," she explained. "Sorry about this."

"It's alright, go," Chief assured her, secretly happy something had interrupted the conversation before it got too personal.

"Thanks again, it was nice talking to you," she said as she left.

When Tali was gone, Cortana spoke up at last.

"You might be able to get rid of her, mainly because she's too nice to keep forcing the issue," she told him firmly. "But I'm stuck in your head and you can't fool me. What's wrong?"

"It's complicated," he admitted. "I'm not entirely sure it would make any sense either."

Cortana's response was almost expected at this point.

"Go ahead," she said dryly. "Try me."

* * *

"Friggin insane," Ellingham growled. "We're hired muscle for them, that's how they see us."

"At least we get something out of it," Pearson tried to argue. "Doesn't make me feel less used though."

"We probably should've suspected this," Ramirez added. "We called them Jackals for a reason."

Kowalski, who had just returned to the barracks after getting his daily rations, didn't have to think hard on exactly what his squadmates were since the end of the Assault Carrier siege, murmurings of Holland and Haverson's confrontation with the Jackal leader Zek had spread through the ranks. Everyone had already suspected the space pirates had their own agenda, some reason they wanted the Carrier to be taken. Having your suspicions confirmed was one thing though. Finding out the real reason for the operation was because the Jackals thought of them as extra muscle to help them build their own fleet was another. No Marine liked feeling used. The fact it was a Covie, former or otherwise, seemingly using them didn't sit well with many.

As Kowalski sat down beside his friends near their makeshift bunks, he was pulled instantly into the conversation.

"If they try this shit again, we're not taking it lying down," Ellingham said proudly. "Hell, Kowalski here knows how to operate one of their biggest boomsticks now. That alone should given them pause."

"They letting you keep that thing?" Agley asked curiously. "Not exactly standard issue."

"I don't know," Kowalski shrugged. "It's a bit harder to control than a rocket launcher. No idea how those grunts do it without falling on their ass. Guess their height helps, lower center of mass and all that. Last I saw of mine they were carting it off to storage with the other guns."

"Holland probably figures we need to conserve our ammo," Pearson reasoned. "We can recharge the plasma rifles and such, but those things aren't the same. Going to need them in case we run into anything serious I imagine."

"Either way, we should get used to using alien weapons," Ramirez suggested as he picked at his food. "We got a lot more of those now than our regular guns."

The change in topic made Kowalski wonder, what exactly were they worried about encountering? Before, he figured the Covenant, obviously. Then they got the Carrier and he started thinking, what did they expect us to fight? If a Covie ship attacked wouldn't it be more up to their mini-fleet to deal with? After what had happened today, Holland would probably be reluctant to steal any more ships. Agley seemed to share his thoughts, given his next question.

"What exactly are we going to use them on anyway?" He asked. "It's not like we're just going to stop on random planets here and there. We're supposed to be going home."

"Yeah, but it's not that simple," Ramirez reminded him. "We're in the middle of nowhere, with who knows how many Covenant occupied planets surrounding us. Cole protocol says we can't go to Earth until we lose the Covies, which from what I'm hearing is going to take awhile. Supplies are going to be an issue until we get back to friendly space. Why you think we're rationing? At some point we're going to run across a planet or two and probably have to head down to get supplies. Who knows what we'll encounter down there."

"Things up here aren't exactly peachy either though," Ellingham reminded them. "We have the stink bird people next door, remember?"

Everyone suddenly got a bit less comfortable at that remark. Ellingham was stepping on some shaky ground, no one blamed him, but it did make it harder to eat. Kowalski tried to ease things over.

"I don't think it's a good idea to start thinking that," he warned.

"Do you like the idea of being their personal ship wrangler?" Ellingham asked sardonically.

"Not really," he admitted. "Hell, I'm as pissed as you are about us getting duped. But like Pearson said, we got something out of it. Covenant will think twice before engaging a damn Assault Carrier."

Ramirez laughed slightly, almost choking on his food.

"Kowalski is agreeing with Pearson," he chuckled. "This is a bad omen. Humanity is doomed for sure."

"When I'm right, I'm right," Pearson confidently stated, dipping a bit of his bread into a cup of soup. "Even Kowalski will admit to that."

"Funny," Kowalski said rather deadpan. "Point is, I don't think they're a danger to us. Not directly. I mean they see us as a resource. I'm not happy with that, but it means they don't want us gone."

"And what happens when we aren't valuable to them?" Ellingham asked frowning slightly. "Look, I agreed with allying with them. Best option among a lot of bad ones in my mind. But we can't ignore the fact they aren't exactly the most reputable aliens around. They aren't like our _Normandy_ pals, they're space pirates. They're shifty by job description, plus they're Jackals so they're also shifty by nature. We need to be careful."

"You might be right, Ellingham," Pearson admitted. "But technically that kind of stuff is above our paygrade. We're just Marines, we don't have a seat at the Captain's table. Ship to ship politics are out of our hands."

Agley suddenly started looking shiftly around, his head slightly cocked to the side.

"Well, maybe not all our hands," he said, his eyes trying to avoid directly looking at Kowalski and failing.

Kowalski just sighed, placing his plate down on the floor.

"Oh this again," he grumbled. "Guys, for the last time, Sam and me are just friends and even if it were more than that it wouldn't suddenly give me a special 'in' with Commander Shepard."

"But you did talk to him before," Ramirez reminded him, shoving a spoonful into his mouth.

"So did Ellingham, doesn't mean anything," Kowalski growled. "I can't get you guys special privileges. That includes their heavy weapons, their cool gear or pictures of Officer Lawson in her lingerie."

"Way to kill a man's dreams, dude," Pearson mockingly replied, shaking his head.

Kowalski just grimaced slightly.

"Aw leave him alone guys," Ellingham said, backing up his friend. "He's right, he can't just ask Samara to get him stuff from Shepard. That Asari's code is pretty lock tight from what he keeps telling me. I don't think she'd appreciate being used anymore than we do. Besides, it's a bit of touchy subject for him, what with the fact there's no way it's happening."

Kowalski rolled his eyes, there it was the usual sudden backhanded teasing he had gotten used to.

"What exactly does that mean?" He asked.

"Well for one you're way too nice a guy and you practically refuse to try and make a move," Ellingham added. "Also, she's still entirely out of your league."

"That has nothing to do with it," Kowalski argued. "She's not looking for a relationship. She has other things on her mind. Like a ton of things."

"He's probably worried he might screw up real bad and she'll be forced to kill him," Pearson said rather nonchalantly. "Reasonable fear given she can crush people with their own gravity."

"No," Kowalski vehemently denied. "I never feel in danger around her, period. She's just nice to talk to. She's six centuries old, she has a lot to share, needs to share. And I like listening to her. It's a nice break from military life for a few hours. That's it."

The slight grins across the squad's faces dissipated, as Kowalski started eating his food with a furious scowl.

"Alright, alright," Ellingham said putting up his hands. "I'm sorry, we're sorry. We get that you like her and you could use someone to talk to. I get that man. We're just, you know, busting your chops a little, we mean nothing by it."

"Yeah, just some jokes among friends," Ramirez added. "You have someone to let off steam to. That's good. Thing is, just know where you're at with this and what you want out of it. Best for all parties involved."

Kowalski sighed and let his anger slip away. Ramirez had a point, he wasn't always sure what he wanted. All he knew was that Samara had been struggling with a lot of things, her code specifically, had been since the _Autumn_ went down. He'd been dealing with a ton of crap since Reach and a lot more after Halo. Samara was the one friend that made it easier to process things after all that. He kept wondering how much he should ask about her or talk to her. It wasn't always easy to figure out what he wanted to say. In a way, maybe the guys were onto something. Maybe he should try to engage with her more, that meant getting to know her own friends aboard the _Normandy_. Hard to find time for that currently though.

"Yeah, okay, I'm sorry guys," he relented. "Didn't mean to snap at you. Guess I'm a bit worked up after today."

"No worries there, we all are," Pearson said, raising his bread to eat it. He stopped suddenly though, looking off to the side. "Some more than others it seems. Look who's crashing dinner time for the barracks."

Pushing and shoving their way past every Marine in the barracks were a small group of ODSTs. Most Marines tried to give them a wide berth. You didn't want to get in a Drop Trooper's way. Problem was, they seemed intent on finding someone to get in their way. They were cussing at anyone who even looked at them, shoving Marines to the side, basically being intentionally antagonistic. Either they knew no one would do anything because of their reputation or they wanted someone to try fight back. They finally ended their little march when they found a table to sit down at just off to the side of Kowalski and his squad's bunks.

"Christ, can't believe this shit," one grumbled in a low growl.

"Fucking Jackals, man," another growled. "Silva called it and these fuckers all ignored him. Idiots."

Kowalski couldn't help but grimace at the Drop Troopers and he wasn't the only one. The rest of the squad of giving them similar looks of disdain, save for one. Agley, probably sensing the tension, tried to get everyone to stop.

"Come on, guys," he cautioned. "They're just looking for a reason. We were talking shit too."

"I wasn't taking it out on other people," Ellingham snorted.

The ODSTs continued their private, yet not so hushed, conversation.

"Holland got tricked once by those bastards, it's gonna happen again," one warned.

"Yeah, and more of us are going to pay the price," another huffed. "If Silva were here he'd never have gone for that bullshit mission. The wrong Commanding Officer died on Halo."

"Amen to that," a third agreed. "Now we got an idiot Spartan fanboy Colonel and a xeno-lover Commander running this shit. Plus McKay, fucking traitor."

The ODSTs all started grumbling and nodding their heads in agreement. All Ellingham could do was shake his head.

"Their Major disobeyed direct orders and they're calling McKay the traitor?" He said, properly whispering unlike the Drop Troopers. "Hypocrite drop pod jockeys, they would've all gotten us infected by the damn Flood if they had their way."

"They're just jackasses," Ramirez said, breaking his own glare at last. "Once they let off enough steam and no one bites, they'll leave."

The ODSTs continued however, ever more intent on riling up the Marines around them.

"These fuckers are buying it too," one said. "Spartan bullshit legends, Shepard's garbage cooperation spiel. Dumb jarhead dipshits."

"They probably love being the Jackals' bitches," laughed one with a sneer. "They followed that Turian asshole easily enough."

Ellingham suddenly bolted up and no one could really move fast enough to stop him. All Kowalski could do was follow his friend. He should've suspected this, Ellingham's fuse was always painfully short. Had been since even before boot camp. He marched up to in range of the ODSTs and then shot back with his own insults.

"Hey," he said snarling and bearing his teeth. "Last I checked, Mutineers don't get to walk around freely among the people who followed orders like they were trained to. You wanna talk shit? Head to the brig where you fuckers belong."

The ODSTs got up from their seats, almost grinning as they did. Kowalski stepped up beside Ellingham, just as they started crowding around him.

"What's a matter, Devil Dog?" The Lead Drop Trooper asked as he pounded his fist into his palm. "Don't like being reminded how you're a fucking xeno-loving piece of shit?"

"Truth hurts, don't it, Private," another growled.

"You want truth?" Ellingham asked. "How about the fact your beloved gloryhound Major Silva almost got us all killed because he wanted a fucking parade? Garrus and the Spartans saved our asses, yours included."

"And now we're working for Jackals," the ODST leader sneered. "Not much of save if we're being used by a flock of ugly pirate birds."

Kowalski couldn't deny he was getting annoyed with these Drop Troopers himself, but he really did not want to start a damn brawl in the barracks over this. He wasn't much of a peacemaker, but maybe he could at least get these idiots to back off before things got worse.

"Look, nobody's happy about what happened, but you coming here to stir something up isn't helping anyone," he told the Drop Troopers. "We're supposed to be on the same team, remember? I think you should all just take off before this gets ugly."

"Or what, Private?" The ODST leader asked. "You gonna report us to that traitor McKay? Huh? You gonna be a fucking rat, is that it?"

"McKay's a better soldier than you four shits put together," Ellingham growled. "She's the reason the Spartans went easy on your sorry asses, you should be grateful."

"The day I'm grateful to a Spartan loving turncoat is the day I jump out of a ship without a Pod and into an asteroid headfirst," bellowed another of the drop troopers.

"Maybe you'd like some help getting there?!" Ellingham shouted back. "I can shove you in the airlock myself!"

Kowalski tried to push Ellingham back, he was not helping this situation. All he could do was put himself between them.

"This is stupid," he reiterated desperately. "There's nothing to gain out this, guys. Just go and we'll forget it ever happened, alright?"

"Fuck you, Private," the ODST leader said, shoving Kowalski slightly again and again. "We don't need to listen to you shits. We're the only real humans left on this ship. Rest of you fucks are just a bunch of damn xeno lovers. Go join Shepard and his crew of freaks if you wanna sleep with the enemy so much. Bet that blue whore bitch they got would give you a free ride or two, bout your speed I bet."

What happened next, Kowalski wasn't sure. His body reacted before his head could process the action. It was only after the ODST was getting lifted back off the table that he realized he had punched the man. Punched him so hard in fact that the drop trooper's nose was bleeding. His friends got him to his feet, and Kowalski, his fist still raised prepared for the follow up as the man snarled at him. However, his friends then alerted him to the scene around him. Their spat had drawn quite a crowd, mainly of none to happy fellow Devil Dogs who, like Kowalski, had reached their own limit of tolerance for the squad of interlopers. The injured Drop Trooper brushed the blood from his nose.

"Let's get out of here boys," he grumbled. "This place stinks of Benedict Arnolds and Quislings anyway."

He looked at Kowalski, who stood his ground.

"I better not find you alone, Private," he growled. "Next time, you won't have your pack of fellow Judases to save ya."

Kowalski narrowed his vision at the Trooper.

"Leave." he spat back firmly. "Now."

The squad of ODSTs left the Marine Barrack, eyed all the way by sour and disgruntled faces of Marines. When they finally left, things returned to normal. Ellingham patted Kowalski on the shoulder, breaking him out of his aggressive stance.

"Geez, dude," he said. "I always knew you had it in ya, but that was a shocker."

"Just be glad it didn't turn into a damn riot," Kowalski said, taking a great big relieved breath or two. "That was a really stupid move, I wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, but you had your fellow Marines backing ya up," Ellingham assured. "Asshole deserved it, talking shit about Shepard's crew like that. Don't worry about him, we'll keep an eye out. We could probably even tell McKay."

"Nah, I don't want more trouble," Kowalski said shaking his head. "This ship is a powder keg enough right now. I don't want to go looking like a snitch."

"Fair enough," Ellingham relinquished. "Hopefully those assholes cool down soon and forget about this."

Something told Kowalski that wasn't happening. This alliance with the batarians and Jackals was already on shaky ground as it was. How long before some ODST or Marines decided to stir up trouble with them instead of a fellow human? If that ever happened, well, a bloody nose would be least of anyone's worries.

* * *

Cortana was trying to be nice about this, she really was, but she couldn't lie about the fact, she wouldn't. Chief supposed he appreciated that, he hated the idea of being condescended to. It didn't make the truth any less hard to hear.

"I can keep going over the numbers for days, Chief," she reiterated again. "But I'm telling you, Reach is glassed, completely. Anyone who survived the initial phases of the Covenant attack is dead by now. I'm sorry."

"What if they made it underground," he asked. "Made it to a pre-glassed area, something."

"The chances of them surviving on a glassed world after the fact are even less," she informed him sadly. "The water is evaporated, vegetation is gone, animal life is vaporized, there's nothing to sustain anyone for any length of time. Bacteria is extinct. You know this. Even a Spartan can't last in an environment that long. Now if they got underground, it's possible they could survive for a time, but the chances are remote."

Chief shook his head in defeat. He knew all this. He knew she was right. It didn't change how he felt.

"I'm sorry," Cortana said sincerely. "I really am. I know how much they meant to you. I just don't see a way they could have survived this long. If you still want to go to Reach, you'd need some other reason, one better than a rescue mission for people who are more than likely ash by now."

"You not going to try and stop me from pursuing this?" He asked, a little more than surprised.

"Knowing you, nothing I say is going to deter you anyway," she explained. "All I can advise, is that if you want to settle this, you need a good reason to put in front of Holland and Haverson."

As always, Cortana knew what she was talking about. You couldn't just request a mission like this, especially in their position. It was too risky and you couldn't base an operation into enemy territory on a feeling. He had to think of another plan.

He entered the makeshift Spartan quarters aboard the _Crusty Chorka_ , as it was now called. They had set up here after Halo's destruction. It wasn't much, some out of the way room, probably for storage or something. It was relatively small, but not many Spartans cared for space. With the Carrier in their possession, maybe they'd move to better quarters. For now, this would do.

Jun and Kat were off in their own corner, working on Kat's robotic arm from the looks of it. He found Linda field stripping her rifle near her bunk. He sat down next to her on a small crate.

"Targeting was off by a few inches," she said plainly. "Figured I'd clean it out, make sure it was in working order."

"Seemed to work just fine to me," he said.

"If it worked fine I'd have been confident enough to try a headshot on that Shipmaster," she explained. "I think next Op I'm going to ask Shepard if I can try out the Widow again. That thing was much more stable."

Linda had become more and more picky about her guns as the war went on. Every couple of missions she'd recheck her rifle and get back to how she felt it should operate. If she didn't think it was good enough for the job she got a new one. She never really kept a sentimental value concerning her weapon, it either worked or it didn't. Spartans were practical like that.

"How do we think we're doing?" He asked her.

"All things considered," she said as she began putting the rifle back together. "Better than I hoped. We have a carrier, we have more weapons and supplies and with both of those we have the firepower to stave off any future enemy forces. The only problem is the Jackals. We knew they had an ulterior motive, I didn't think it was about making them more powerful. At least we set the record straight."

A fair assessment as always, but he was looking for a bit more.

"What about us?" He asked more directly. "The team, I mean."

Linda looked away briefly across the room, but kept working.

"Jun's got a good head on his shoulders and a keen eye," she said. "He's a good second for a sniper team. Not that I need one. Kat is smart, mind for strategy. I respect her capabilities. She handles well under pressure, although she sometimes thinks she has a lot more to prove than she does. They worked well today and I have no doubt that trend will continue."

At least this meant Linda had adjusted fairly well to the new dynamic. It probably helped that she had worked with both of the Spartan IIIs before. They weren't the same, they didn't have the decades of training they did. They had the same scars though, probably a few more given how they got recruited. In a way, he was lucky. He didn't know his parents well enough to miss them. Kat and Jun saw theirs taken away by an enemy they couldn't fight. ONI used that to turn them into killing machines. His thoughts weren't centered on the morality of that, just what it could do to a person. The fact Jun and Kat were so well adjusted showed how capable they were.

Just like Kelly and Fred, just like every Spartan they lost.

"I've been thinking a lot about Blue Team," he suddenly admitted. "About the ones I sent planet-side."

Linda shoved the barrel back on the weapon and locked it in place.

"Kelly and Fred," she said morosely. "Yeah, so have I."

"Remember back in training," he asked. "That day we had to take down that squad of ODSTs with their shock sticks and tazers?"

Linda hummed slightly, the closest most Spartans got to laughing.

"Fred broke that one guy's nose against a tree," she recalled. "Didn't see it coming."

"Kelly grabbed the Mongoose," Chief added. "Led them right into the ambush site."

"Easiest extra rations we ever got," Linda said, cocking her head to the side. "Most satisfying too."

That was just one of many training exercises. They were so many it was hard to keep them all straight. After awhile they bleed into each other. Despite that though, they were still good memories, some of the best he had. Training was hell, never as bad as the implants and modifications, but still pretty grueling. Didn't matter though, not when he had his team, his friends.

"You ever think..." Chief paused for a moment, wondering whether it was right to fill Linda's head with this false hope he had suddenly got. "You think they might be alive?"

"All of our dead get listed as MIA," she shrugged. "Part of me likes to think that... I don't know, maybe they lived."

Linda stuck the scope back on at last, finishing her field strip and repair.

"It's a nice dream," she said, looking straight at him as she did. "That they're still fighting, that they're still out there. Holding onto it, it's comforting."

She stood up, still looking at him. What she said next, she spoke in an almost knowing tone.

"I'd rather not have it spoiled for me."

Linda walked away after that, probably off to see Garrus about a new weapon. He should've known better than to think he could dance around the question with her. Linda knew him too well, knew what he was thinking. He knew what she was saying, that he might not like what he found if he pursued this. His gut wouldn't let it go. It was his team, his friends. How did you just ignore that?

He got up and started to walk over to Kat and Jun. He got a better look at what they were doing with her arm. Kat had a tool kit out and had opened up the mechanics near the wrist to do some servo adjustments.

"Problems?" He asked.

"None," Kat assured. "I'm doing some personal upgrades. This Geth arm is impressive and Tali's specs are good, but I have my own ideas on how to improve it. With any luck, I can actually make this thing an even deadlier weapon in and of itself."

"You can already shock people's faces off with it," Jun reminded her. "What's next? Are you going to add a cannon or something?"

"This is not comic book, don't be ridiculous," Kat said sternly. "I just want to increase the strength threshold, maybe add a blade. The batarians have those projectile knives on their wrists, might be something to look into."

Jun just pulled himself back in his seat, giving Kat some space. Chief, in the meantime, took a seat in between them on a small crate. There was no sense in wasting time here. Linda had showed him how pointless it was to do so after all.

"How long were you two stationed on Reach?" He asked bluntly.

"A good while," Kat admitted. "Didn't think it would become such an active assignment."

"No one did," Chief concurred. "I heard from Shepard how you recovered something from a Forerunner ruin down there."

Kat stopped working briefly and looked to him.

"Data," she explained. "We managed to get it out in time. What exactly it was we never were told. Above our paygrade I suppose."

She said that almost annoyed. Things were classified for a reason, but Chief had to admit even he had problems with not always getting all the info. After all, that was why he was here.

"What can you tell me about these ruins?" He asked.

"Anything specific?" Kat asked.

"Not really," he admitted. "I just want to know if you think anything else could be down there."

* * *

When Tali had called him down to engineering, Shepard suspected it had something to do with their new arrivals. What he didn't suspect was to find the Huragok in full on work mode. They were buzzing around the whole room, pulling apart things and putting them back together with surprising speed. One of them was even working on the core itself. They had apparently integrated into the engineering crew almost immediately. That wasn't the surprising part though, that was when Tali showed him the specs.

"Are you sure these are right?" He asked the quarian as he looked over the readout reports.

"Everything checks out," she excitedly assured. "They've increased core efficiency by ten percent in the last couple of hours. That and they've located several dozen system errors and bugs we somehow missed, speeding up the computers significantly. Core shields are stronger than ever and power fluctuations have decreased, allowing the _Normandy_ to fly faster and harder than ever before. They're even trying to increase our fuel efficiency and they're succeeding so far. They're finding problems in the ship's basic functions we missed and correcting them in practically no time at all. These creatures are amazing, Shepard!"

At that moment there was a slight commotion as one of the creatures lightly pushed Donnelly off his terminal. The man tried to get the Huragok to move, but the floating bluish-purple sack refused to budge.

"They're amazing, alright," he grumbled. "Amazingly pushy. Honestly, it's like why am I even here anymore? They keep taking over our stations so they can mess around with the ship's insides!"

"It is a bit annoying," Daniels concurred. "Even if the results are, you know, good."

"I don't think they understand the concept of working space" Shepard told them. "Either way, they are just here to help."

"Yeah, to help," Donnelly growled. "Not take my job."

The Huragok chirped slightly back at Kenneth and continued it's work on the terminal.

"Yeah, same to you, boy'o," Donnelly grumbled.

If the Huragok noticed Kenneth's angry retorts, it didn't show it. After a few more seconds it finished whatever it was doing at the terminal and floated away.

"As much as I appreciate all they're doing, I feel like we're wasting them," Tali explained. "They've been maximizing our engineering output, but that seems trivial work for three living supercomputers."

"How do you think they've managed to master our technology so fast?" Shepard asked curiously as he watched one of the Huragok start opening a wall panel.

"Best guess is they're sharing information with each other at a lighting fast rate," Tali surmised. "Kind of like the Geth and the Neural Net. They're able to share what they learn about our technology with those in close proximity. One learns and passes on the information to the others. They're constantly doing that, sharing information and building upon it. If there was just one aboard any of the ships in the Migrant Fleet, it would probably run like it was brand new in a month. Maybe less if there were more with it."

The Huragok suddenly finished with with the panel and closed it back up, floating past Tali and Shepard.

"It just balanced power flow to the infusion injectors," Daniels reported, near almost bored as she said it. "Honestly, I'm not even shocked at this point."

"See what I mean?" Tali reiterated to Shepard. "I think we should put them on the Slipspace generator project. With their knowledge of Covenant engines and their increasing knowledge of our own, we stand a better chance at integrating the technologies together."

Shepard gave it a little thought, given their troubles getting that to work it made sense to put the Hurgok on the project. They needed to get some results if they were going to make the _Normandy_ Slipspace capable. The Huragok looked like their best chance at this point.

"Alright, it's worth a try," he agreed. "I'd like to be able to travel around this galaxy without using up all our fuel in FTL. We'd be a lot more use to this makeshift fleet if we could get it working soon."

"The only problem I'm seeing is telling them what I want them do," Tali explained. "They don't seem to respond to orders much. I don't think they understand exactly why they're here, they just see problems that need fixing. I need to find a way to communicate with them better. Especially if I want them to perform even more complex tasks."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at that.

"You have other projects you want them to work on?" He presumed.

"Garrus is still trying to figure out how to convert some of the UNSC weapons to use mass effect fields like out guns," Tali informed him sheepishly. "There's always improvements to our armor we could use. Not to mention our understanding of Covenant tech in general could be greatly increased."

"But that's not really what you're thinking about using them for," Shepard said, crossing his arms.

Tali just sighed.

"I'm still worried about Legion," she admitted. "That glitch is still in their head. It hasn't cropped up as much, probably helps I've been treating the issue with regular scans and technical scrubs, but it's embedded in the hardware's code now. I can't separate it from the neural net. These Engineers, maybe they could help."

Shepard placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, he had suspected this.

"It's not a problem that's going to have an easy answer," he told her. "You know that. I'm not saying they can't help, but I wouldn't get your hopes too high up."

"I know," she assured, still sounding anxious and concerned. "It's just the longer this goes on, the more vulnerable he'll become. What if the next batch of batarians that Balak inevitably sends over has more tech specialists or the like? What if the Covenant start coming up with synthetic countermeasures based on what they're doing back in our universe? And that's not even mentioning what could happen in the field if Legion freezes up again, or worse. I feel like I'm letting them down."

Shepard forced her to turn about and look at him.

"Hey, you are doing everything you can," he reminded her sternly. "If anyone can lick this glitch, it's you. You'll find the answer, whether the Huragok can help you or not."

Tali's silver eyes beamed through the purple visor as she palced her head on Shepard's chest.

"Thanks," she said gratefully, patting his hand lightly. "It's good to know you're in my corner on this. Although that saying is weird. Lick? Really? You humans use that to describe beating something?"

Shepard just shrugged.

"I didn't come up with this stuff, I just use it," he said humbly.

They were then interrupted by a crash from down below. It was followed by a lot of muffled swearing and the sounds of more things getting toppled over.

"Ah shoot," Shepard groaned. "Jack's hidey hole."

Shepard and Tali raced out of engineering and down the steps just outside the door. They quickly found Jack and one of the Huragok, the latter cowering in a corner with it's tentacles up. Jack was berating it angrily, her biotics blaring across her body.

"My fucking room!" She screamed. "My! Fucking! Room! Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?! Do you have any sense of privacy in the Covenant?"

The Huragok could only respond with several chirps and gurbles.

"For the love of crap, speak a fucking language I know octopus face!"

"Jack!" Shepard shouted, getting the ex-con's attention. "What the hell is going on?"

Jack lowered her biotic defenses, but her rage remained.

"I'll tell you what the fuck is going on," she roared back. "This goddamn floating sack of farts and slime has barged in here twice now! First I catch it messing with my stuff! Then I lay down for a nap and I wake up with that thing's ass over my face with it's freaky little tendrils dropping all over me!"

"It's just trying to improve the ship," Tali explained. "It doesn't mean to intrude on your personal space."

"Well I don't need the a damn airborne squid creature charging in here every other hour," Jack responded. "This is the one fucking place on the ship I can relax, get away from everyone, and they keep busting in like they own the place!"

"Maybe it would be best if you left for awhile then," Shepard suggested. "Give it space to do whatever it's trying to do. We can have some of the security personnel watch it and make sure it doesn't mess with your stuff."

Jack just snorted, looked at the Huragok. It stared at her with a confused expression, or what constituted one for it's peculiar slender snake-like head. It then made another of it's cute little chirping noises and Jack could only groan.

"Fine, fuck it," she grumbled. "I'll go up to Thane's quarters I guess. See what he's doing."

"Thane?" Tali asked, confused. "Why-"

"None of your business!" Jack was quick shout back frantically. "What's it to you anyway? I can spend time with other people, I'm not anti-social! The cheerleader just says that to try and piss me off!"

"It's just, I didn't think Thane-"

"I said none of your business," Jack declared, cutting off Tali once more. "So shut up!"

She then stomped past both the quarian and Shepard. When she was gone, the Huragok returned to work.

"That was... odd," was all Tali could eventually say.

Shepard agreed, Jack always kept things close to her chest, but she didn't usually blow up without a reason. He didn't have much time to figure what it had been all about though. He got a call on his omni-tool, ID software said it was Miranda.

"Go ahead, Lawson," he said as he answered the call.

"Commander, you need to come to the _Fallen Serpent's_ , uh, rec-room as it were," she explained, her tone both exasperated yet urgent. "I don't know how else to describe it honestly. Seriously, just come quickly please."

"What's wrong Miranda?" Shepard asked, slightly concerned.

He heard a long really annoyed sigh.

"You'll see when you get here," she grumbled.

* * *

Little green and brown monsters wreaked havoc across the screen. Humans in business suits ran screaming for their lives as the little monsters clawed, grappled and scrambled everywhere within the skyscraper lobby. The creatures shouted non sequiturs as they threw humans from on high, smashed them through windows and caused general chaos as dark whimsical music played. All the while, watching the madness unfold before them, the assembled group of Jackals laughed and chuckled at the insanity. They even cheered on the little rabble-rousing tiny green monsters, tossing their food and drink into the air in delight.

None found the events unfolding on the holoscreen more enjoyable than Zek, sitting in a large chair set up in the middle of room, slapping his knee as he cackled to himself. Retz, sitting beside him, was more subdued, busy chewing an apple clutched in his hands. with a smile on his face.

"These Gremlin creatures are a riot!" Zek declared. "And I thought their shenanigans in the last one were hilarious! Yeah, that's right! Smash the system you little freaks! Fuck it all up!"

Shepard arrived at that very moment, standing in the doorway with Miranda. She was glaring at the proceedings with a look of disdain and barely withheld contempt. Shepard was more or less simply confused at what was going on. He recognized the vid on screen, an old film from the late 20th called "Gremlins 2: The New Batch." He also noticed a lot of human food among the snacks the Jackals were eating.

"They're having a vid night?" Shepard asked curiously.

"With human films I might add," Miranda noted growling. "Films they shouldn't have. Do you have any idea how they could've gotten their claws on them?"

Shepard took a brief moment to consider her question. The answer eventually came to him. He took up his omni-tool and made a call to his ship.

"Joker, it's Shepard," he said. "Bad news buddy, I think the Jackals got into your classic films and music file."

"What? Why do you think that?" The pilot asked in surprise.

"Because I'm standing in the doorway of their rec-room and they're watching the Gremlins sequel," Shepard explained. "Retz must've copied it while he was in the system without us knowing."

"Well, that's one way to share human culture," Joker said plainly.

Miranda displeasure was now mixed with her own sense of befuddlement.

"Mind telling me why a portion of our computers is filled with old vids and songs from two centuries ago?" She asked annoyed.

"Come on, Miranda," Joker pleaded. "You know how long it takes to get anywhere back home? It might seem like only a few seconds to pop from system to system for you, but FTL is very long and boring in the pilot's seat. Hell, spending most of your time in a chair is boring. I need something to do."

Miranda just sighed.

"Whatever, that's the least of my concerns," she admitted. "The fact still remains they managed to copy and steal this file of vids without us knowing. I wouldn't have found out about it if I hadn't tracked some stolen kitchen items Gardner noticed. I didn't realize they were raiding the fridge for this though."

"We best talk this over with Zek then," Shepard relented, looking towards Zek's chair. "Hopefully he already intends to reimburse us for the food. Then we can discuss the-"

Out of the corner of his eye, he realized sitting close to Zek's little throne was, of all people, Kasumi. She even had a cup in hand with a straw slurping on something. By the time Shepard spotted her, so did Miranda, her eyes drawn to the Commander's line of sight.

"You've got to be kidding," she grumbled.

They walked over to Kasumi, through the throng of Pirates munching on whatever food they had stolen.

"Hey, down in front, humans!"

"Learn some vid ethics!"

Shepard and Miranda eventually lowered their heads and kneeled next to Kasumi, her eyes still glued to the screen.

"Hey, Shep, Miri," she cheerfully greeted. "Come to watch the show?"

"No, I don't have time to watch ugly green outdated puppets destroy a building in any case," Miranda told her. "Why exactly are you here and how come you didn't report this?"

Kasumi just grinned a little.

"First of all, they're highly sophisticated animatronics for their era," she corrected. "As in actually real and not some fancy hologram they insert to save time and money. The vid itself is a scathing satire on society's over-dependence on technology and the idea of sequels in general."

"I really don't want to get into a film studies debate right now," Miranda told her firmly. "This is a potential security leak. They stole this from our computers."

"And that's the second thing, lighten up, Miri," Kasumi pleaded. "It's just some vids from the 20th and a couple recent blockbusters. Plus a ton of music they've been playing between presentations. My own omni-tool has a bunch of this stuff on it already, I probably would've shared them myself eventually."

"It's really not the vids that are the concern," Shepard explained calmly. "It's what else they might have snuck off with."

Kasumi finally tore her eyes away, sighing slightly.

"Look, it's not that bad," she assured. "I've stolen way bigger things. Run a scan to see if anything else got copied and deal with it when the results come in."

"I'm already doing that," Miranda assured. "It's been running for the past hour since I discovered this spectacle. How did I not see you before anyway?"

"I'm the best thief in the galaxy," Kasumi reminded her rather sardonically. "I blend in pretty good with a crowd, Miri. Even among crazy alien birds. Hell you didn't notice Grunt either."

"What?" Miranda said in shock and anger.

Kasumi pointed her thumb over to a corner of the room in the back where they could see the krogan banging his fists on a table in excitement. Apparently he was enjoying the display of chaos on screen too, specifically the current scene of a genetics lab in utter disarray.

"He's a bit big to be at the front," Kasumi explained. "They would only let him stay if he didn't block anyone's view. Retz told him they were reserved seats for the best warriors, he bought that pretty easily."

Miranda just groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose between punched fingertips.

"How long exactly has this vid party been going on?" Shepard asked, trying to alleviate some of the tension.

"Awhile, they watched _Muppet Treasure Island_ first, really loved the songs," Kasumi explained. "Then it was the first of the original _Pirates of the Caribbean_ films, before the reboots in 2030s of course. After that they watched the original _Goonies_ , they really loved that one, and they did a search for anything else the studio made. That was when they found _Gremlins_ and it's sequel and here we are."

"That is several hours worth of vids," Miranda noted. "They've been watching this stuff for that long?"

"Since Zek came back to the _Serpent_ more or less," Kasumi said plainly. "You were all pretty busy with mopping up after the Carrier and taking care of our latest additions to the engineering crew. The Jackals don't really have much to do otherwise to be honest, at least while they're being towed anyway."

Shepard should've suspected something earlier, the Jackals had been way too quiet. He had half expected Zek to storm into his cabin at some point, demanding that he work something out with Holland to get over the morning's disappointment concerning the Huragok. It never came and he had hoped it was because Zek had cooled off. Instead, it was because him and his entire crew decided to slack off. He supposed he couldn't blame them, considering things didn't go their way. Plus it kept them out of trouble, somewhat, they still stole a bunch of snacks.

"So why are you here, Kasumi?" Shepard asked. "I thought you were more into books."

"I'm into art, all forms of it," Kasumi corrected him with cheery grin. "A vid from the late 20th has a great amount of artistic merit. They established a lot of the groundwork for how films are made today. Summer action flicks, bigger emphasis on special effects, character driven drama, the hero's journey coming back into prominence within the mainstream, we wouldn't have a lot of our modern classics without this era of experimentation."

"I appreciate the history lesson," Miranda cut in. "But I'd like to know why you're here with the Jackals specifically."

"We're supposed to be friends now, right?" Kasumi asked. "What's the harm in spending some time with them and getting to know them? Besides, they like having me around, I'm practically a legend now after I drunk their ichor."

Miranda and Shepard now shared a disgusted and rather surprised look on their face.

"You drank space whale bile?" Shepard asked. "Seriously?"

"It's actually not so bad," she declared. "Kind of tangy actually, well certain kinds of the bile anyway. It depends on where you extract it from apparently. Point is, it got me in good with them."

At that moment, one of the Jackals scrambled up beside Kasumi with a bottle of something.

"Refill, Ms. Goto?" He asked.

"No thanks I'm good," She assured him.

The Jackal scurried off and Kasumi leaned towards Shepard and Miranda as he did.

"Actually I just don't have any candy bars left to trade," she explained. "They're big on barter here, plus the junk food gets them wild a bit. I have no idea why but they seem addicted to sweets."

"I'll take that under advisement," Shepard said. "Enjoy the movie, Kasumi."

"I will, Shep," she assured. "And go easy on Zek and Retz, okay? They're decent birds if you give them the chance."

Kasumi was probably right, that this whole thing was harmless and that Retz had only stolen some vids out of curiosity. This was the second time though that he and his captain has done something shifty and underhanded, in the same day in fact. Shepard had let Kasumi get away with a little kleptomania now and then, but she had never potentially compromised their computers. He knew Miranda was a lot less happy about this situation though, she hadn't dropped her sour expression since he got here.

When they approached Zek and Retz, still sitting in their "thrones" so to speak, the Shipmaster instantly looked to Shepard with the same oversized grin he had worn earlier that morning in his cabin. That time he had caught him a little off guard, but Shepard was more prepared for what he knew was coming.

"Commander, what a pleasant surprise!" He greeted happily. "I didn't think I'd see you here so soon into our partnership. Welcome aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ , you too, Ms. Lawson. I hope you've been properly accommodated."

"That depends on your definition," Miranda grumbled, her arms crossed.

"We've noticed your... entertainment for this evening," Shepard said, pointing to the holoscreen.

Zek looked back to the screen, showing one of the Gremlins shooting at the lead hero with a semiautomatic before swiping some kind of flask containing genetic material.

"Oh, that," Zek noted, trying to play things off. "I suppose we should explain a little."

"Like you using your access to our computers to steal things without permission?" Miranda asked.

"I stole nothing, good madam," Retz haughtily defended. "I merely copied information of a non-classified nature. I only ever had access to the lowest tier of your computers, I didn't hack, I didn't splice, I just copied and then shared the contents with my compatriots. Honestly, I didn't think you'd mind too much."

Miranda just grimaced. Before she could continue her questioning though, Shepard decided to attempt to ease things over.

"We're just concerned about you using the time we gave you to find something to trade for repairs to sneak something out for yourselves," Shepard explained. "Also, the stealing of the food by your crew isn't appreciated either."

"You will be compensated for the loss of supplies, I assure you," Zek promised. "There's plenty of food one can pick up at the Hollow, most of which you humans will find edible. I mean, there's bound to be something there that won't turn your stomach. But honestly, Shepard, you can't blame them too much."

He reached over into a bowl resting on his chair and clutched a handful of popcorn, no doubt another thing his men had stolen.

"Honestly how could you justify hiding this delicious puffed salty stuff?" He asked. "We thought it was just some silly seeds before we followed the directions and bothered to heat the stuff. Of course the kitchen is a bit of a mess, we didn't think it would explode. Still good though."

Zek shoved the popcorn into his mouth, chewing it loudly. Miranda visibly retched.

"Besides," Zek said, his beak still full. "I'm still living up to my end of the bargain."

He finally swallowed and rested one of his feet across his knee casually.

"I fully intend to give you specs for plasma weapons and information on our slipspace tech," he assured, still grinning. "Hell, I'll even throw in finding you guys some high quality rare weapons the Covenant only give to their best soldiers. Should be easy enough when we get to the Hollow, they got dealers who specialize in that. That should cover any additional expenses in lost supplies."

"Appreciated, but that still leaves the security issue," Miranda told them. "You can't just go into someone else's system and copy things under their nose."

"Well what do you want us to do?" Retz asked, laughing slightly. "Give you the vids back?"

"Oh that would break the crew's hearts," Zek said, imitating sadness as he did, placing a hand over his heart "Look at them, they love your planet's cinema. It's such a great change from the regular junk we've been stuck with for years. All the Covenant have is crap religious propaganda."

Shepard looked out onto the throng of Jackals. They did seem to genuinely enjoy the movie, for whatever reason. It did seem a bit odd they had gravitated to a bunch of old human vids so quickly though. Sure, the first few they watched according to Kasumi were about pirates, maybe they saw the appreciated the similarity in occupation, but it was still human pop culture.

"I'm surprised you've taken to it so quickly," he told Zek. "I mean, they're about as foreign to you as one can get. The mythology, culture, themes, they're not really related to you."

"Perhaps not entirely," Zek admitted. "But as strange to us as some of these things are, I found they share a lot in common with us too. Especially your pirate stories and the tragic bittersweet tale of Long John Silver."

"Yes," Retz said sadly. "A classic tale of a man searching for a treasure, finding a son and that son rejecting him and the adventure he promises. He tried so hard though, damn frog-thing got in his head first sadly."

"And the glorious thrill of the treasure hunt the young Goonies embarked on," Zek added merrily. "Beating back those who would destroy their way of life through the greatest of all business ventures, the search for gold. Pirates in the making those kids. Their parents are right to be proud."

They had a strange way of interpreting the vids, but Shepard supposed that was the nature of art. It spoke to individuals differently, no matter what planet they came from it seemed.

"So what about these little green nutbags?" Shepard asked.

"Chaotic little rabble-rousers who do what they want, when they want, and pillage from those around them in a party that never truly ends so long as the food and booze flows," Zek shouted aloud with glee "What's not to love about that? Tell me, is this holiday you call Christmas always like that on Earth for you? The one in the first vid I mean. Riots, destruction, general chaos?"

"Only in the vids," Shepard answered plainly. "It's meant to be kind of ironic. You do get presents though."

Zek shrugged.

"I suppose that's still pretty decent for a holiday," he relented. He quickly changed subject, his voice growing more sincere. "The point is Shepard, you need to understand us Kig-Yar. When the Covenant took over, our culture was more or less wiped off the map. Assimilation eroded at it like a cancer. We lost a lot of our myths, our stories, our way of life, it was all replaced by blind worship to the Forerunners. This ship is one of the last vestiges of that once great heritage."

"According to what we know, that heritage is one of piracy," Shepard recalled.

"Indeed," Retz confirmed happily. "Our planet has a massive equatorial ocean that spans the entire circumference of the planet. It was only natural our ancestors took to the waters for sustenance and profit. Kig-yar have always prided themselves on the seizing of opportunity. Piracy was just natural to us and remained so even when we headed to the stars. All to follow one single goal, to seek profit, discover opportunity and take it for ourselves and our fellows."

"So you've always been thieves then?" Miranda asked.

Zek and Retz just looked at each other, seemingly laughing at how Miranda summed their people up so simplistically.

"We're the truest of any businessmen, Ms. Lawson," Retz corrected in a prideful manner. "That means we're a bit more aggressive in our practices than most entrepreneurs. We're capitalists unburdened by restriction. Our government is one that derives authority from the masses, those with the will to seek their dreams without fear of reprisal save from those who rival them."

"Ah, my mistake," Miranda grimaced, not appreciating the Jackal's tone. "You're not thieves, you're a mob. You're like the Gremlins in these Vids, no central government, no real rule of law, just a chaotic search for profit."

"More or less," Zek admitted without a hint of shame. "The kig-yar life is one of absolute personal freedom. The rule of the individual, answerable only to his crew and shipmaster. At least it was, until matters changed with the Covenant and the sanctimonious holier than thou shit."

Zek picked up a bottle next to his bowl of popcorn, but noticed it was empty. Grimacing and with a sigh he called out aloud across the room.

"Unggoy! Unggoy come here! I need another, damn it!"

Suddenly a grunt, methane tank and all, came waddling up to them as fast as his little legs could go. In his hands a tray with a fresh bottle of ichor rested upon it. Zek snatched it as it came close to him.

"I shouldn't have to call you know," he growled. "You're supposed to be paying attention."

"Me Sorry," the grunt shuddered. "Me so busy and tired me guess."

"Tired? Please, I took a carrier today and you did nothing but suck gas and nap for seven hours," Zek countered. "I'm paying you in food that we could be eating, you have to earn that. Now scuttle off before your stink catches."

The grunt whimpered and waddled off just as quickly as he came. When Zek turned back to Shepard he noticed the Commander's disapproving face. Zek could only shrug in confusion at him.

"I guess that freedom you mentioned doesn't extend to everyone," Shepard noted.

"Hey, they're getting a good deal," Zek snorted back. "I let them take up space on my ship with their damn methane stench fouling the air up, I don't send them off to kill for me and in return they have to pull their own weight around here. Only fair. Honestly, I'm probably the nicest boss they've ever had. They should be grateful."

"Yes, that instantly gives you the right to be verbally abusive to a species weaker than you," Miranda sardonically stated. "You're a real prince, truly. Saints of the highest order in the pirating community."

Zek rolled his eyes and he wasn't alone. Retz couldn't help but shake his head at it all.

"Ms. Lawson, you are defending creatures who don't really deserve it," he explained. "Unggoy are cowardly, disgusting idiots of little merit or notice. They come from a shit world that they should've died on eons ago because of their own stupidity. The very fact we aren't treating them like disposable refuse to fling at the sangheili should be considered the most gracious thing we could ever do. Sure, the reason we aren't doing it is because we'd rather not have to trust our back sides to their incompetence, period. All the same though, we've saved them from that same sordid fate within the Covenant. The least they can do is bring us a drink or two."

"Or five," Zek chuckled.

"This kind of animosity doesn't just come from nowhere" Shepard observed curiously. "Why do you hate them?"

Zek huffed slightly, his eyes growing cold.

"Unggoy ain't worth hating, doesn't mean they deserve respect," he clarified. "Bastards fucked over their own planet. So when the Covies uplift them, guess where they start shoving their worthless asses? On us! Trampled our eggs, lost us colonies and the like. Sure, it was centuries ago, doesn't mean they get to be absolved. Hell, I'll grant our ancestors probably shouldn't have tried to poison them all, but that doesn't mean we have to be friends with the little freaks and pretend what they did never happened."

Oh great, another one of these situations, Shepard thought. Why did he keep getting stuck with aliens who had centuries old grudges with each other? No matter, he supposed, at least Zek wasn't being physically abusive, for now anyway. He could still without the whole treating the grunts like garbage though.

"Considering their own collective predicament as nothing better than slaves, you could stand to show some compassion," Shepard suggested. "They're a lot like you in a way if you think about, you were both stuck under the thumb of the Covenant."

"I am nothing like them," Zek assured confidently, almost offended in fact by the comparison. "I have a spine. I never once pretended to be the good little lapdog, I stood up for myself when I was working for those fucks. Unggoy are dumb bastards who get uppity now and then before remembering that they're morons and then go back to being pliable underlings. Maybe if they weren't massive burdens on themselves and others, I'd give a shit. As it stands though, I couldn't care less about how shitty their lives are."

Shepard decided to drop the subject. He didn't get Tali to stop hating the Geth in one conversation and she was a lot more open to debate from the onset than Zek was now. He'd lay down some ground rules though, just to be safe.

"I don't want to hear about them being mistreated," he explained. "Yell at them if you want, but I don't want to learn you've been using them as target practice and striking them for minor offenses."

"I try to keep a lid on that myself," Zek replied, actually sincere for once. "Last thing I want is unggoy getting pissy about their lot on my ship. They get stupid ideas in their heads when you push them too far, like trying to push back. As if that ever works."

Zek finally took a sip from his fresh bottle, just as Miranda's omni-tool started beeping. She looked at the screen and sighed.

"Well, the scan is complete," she said with a low grumble. "Nothing else was copied from the systems."

"Then we should consider this matter closed," Zek declared happily. "A minor issue in what I hope is a long partnership. Now come, stay, indulge a little. These vids are more yours than ours after all."

"I'll pass," Miranda stated bluntly.

Miranda started her way back out, Shepard followed close behind.

"At least they didn't steal anything classified," He told her as they walked.

"That doesn't change anything," she said firmly, her voice filled with venom. "The little bastard got by me. He snuck something by me. That's not happening again. From now on, I'm watching them like a hawk."

"Don't blame yourself for this," Shepard said, trying to comfort her. "You were watching out for them stealing mission critical things. So you didn't pay attention to Retz taking a peek in Joker's personal vid and music playlists documents. No harm no foul."

"Tons of fouls, lots of foul," Miranda declared. "We gave them an inch, trusted them and they abused it. Who cares how minor it was?"

"We did make our point clear," Shepard assured her. "This was a one time thing anyway, we won't let them back in the system."

"How do we know that's going to stop them?" Miranda asked, still sounding frustrated. "They only offered reparations this time because they obviously knew we'd catch them. What happens when they get more brazen?"

Shepard knew she had a point. He could try and spin this all day, but even he was troubled by these antics. They'd have to take precautions.

"Alright, we keep a lid on the kitchen and armory, everything," he said. "If a Jackal comes aboard we make sure he's watched. Put Thane on it maybe, he's good at that."

"Why not Samara?" Miranda asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, I'm not sure she'd be able to hold back if she saw them stealing food," Shepard explained. "She's struggling with this as it is, we all are. We need to be careful about how we proceed."

Miranda just sighed at that.

"Can I be completely honest with you for a second?" She asked sincerely.

"Like you always are when you tell me I'm doing something you think is rash or stupid and I do it anyway?" He asked in return, his voice deadpan as he spoke.

"Yes, kind of like that," Miranda replied, crossing her arms. "I really don't think this is going to work out in the long run. Zek and his little band of thieves I mean. They're just not in this for the same reasons."

Shepard knew he was going to have to confront this with a few of his friends at some point. It made sense Miranda was one of the first, especially after this incident.

"They are pirates," Shepard reminded her. "That is kind of expected. Doesn't mean they can't be persuaded."

"That's my point though," Miranda insisted. "You heard it from them. They're a society based on mob rule and self-appointed chaos in the interest of profit. They're not interested in being noble or saving people, they're interested in themselves. They're selfish, they're greedy..."

"They're a lot like us humans in a way," he interrupted. "I know they're not interested in getting involved in this war again, Zek told me himself. But at some point they need to realize that there's not going to be much of a galaxy left to plunder if things keep going as they are. We need to show them this fight is as much theirs as it is ours."

Miranda just sighed, letting her arms fall to her side. When she looked back up it was with concern, probably more than she was ever comfortable showing.

"I understand what you're saying, Shepard, I do," she assured calmly. "But I'm not entirely sure they want to change or if they care enough to even consider it. They seem more interested in preserving their newfound hedonistic lifestyle, mainly through building a bloody pirate fleet if today is any indication. That's not a good starting point. I won't stop you from pursuing this, mainly because I know you won't even if I try, but I am asking you to be careful, Commander. Zek might seem like he's open to negotiation, but only if he's certain he'll ultimately get what he wants. And what he wants might not be something you're willing to compromise on."

Miranda walked off after that, leaving Shepard in the doorway of the rec room. He looked back into the makeshift theater and scanned the throng of Jackals occupying it, stuffing their faces and slurping their drinks. They weren't the ideal allies, he knew that. Miranda was right on many counts in that regard, they were out for themselves, he knew that. Convincing them to care would be hard.

He felt he had to try though. At the very least he had to try. He recalled his previous conversation with Chief from that morning. He left out a few things when he talked about it. Like how he, like these pirates, had gotten lost. He was self-serving one point too. He got fed up, tired, sick of everything more or less. He wasn't getting anywhere, he was stagnating. He wasn't changing things, it all felt pointless. He wanted to quit, give in, give up.

And that was when Elysium happened and everything changed. He found himself again, it wasn't pretty but there it was. Zek and his pirates just needed to encounter their own Elysium somehow. Problem was, he didn't know what that would be exactly. Miranda's words hung in the forefront of his mind. Zek currently was only concerned with what he wanted, no one else. That made things complicated, especially when he wasn't entirely sure what precisely was Zek's ultimate goal was.

"What is it that you want?"

The question came from the holoscreen and some weird chubby man in a terribly tacky Dracula costume. He was interviewing one of the Gremlins, the one who was wearing glasses and could speak. He answer was pretty simple.

"Fred, what we want is what everyone wants and what you and your viewers have, civilization!"

Given everything that was happening in the movie, Shepard found that hard to believe. As the screen scanned a room full of Gremlins drinking and screeching and growling at a bar, Shepard looked back to the Jackals as the smart Gremlin spoke of what he meant by civilization. The puppet listed off a bunch of random things that consisted of what it seemed to think the concept stood for. Mostly just silly gibberish.

"Oh we may stumble along the way, but Civilization, yes! The Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag. Everything your society has worked so hard to accomplish over the centuries that's what we aspire to, we want to be civilized."

As the Gremlin spoke, suddenly some weirder fellow gremlin, clearly not as smart as him, appeared on screen. It wore a beanie hat and chattered inanely for attention. The smart Gremlin took notice fairly casually.

"I mean, do take a look at this fellow here."

Then, just as casually, the smart Gremlin pulled a gun, aimed it at the beanie hat Gremlin and fired into it's face. Uproarious laughter erupted from the assembled Gremlins at the bar on screen, but they were drowned out by another group, the Jackals. It was a cackling, delighted, gleeful laugh. Sensible, given the darkly humorous nature of the punchline, but Shepard saw something darker than the sick little joke. Because for a brief few moments, he couldn't tell the difference between the Gremlins on screen and Jackals in the room.

"Now was that civilized?" The smart Gremlin asked smirking. "No clearly not, fun but in no sense civilized."

And when the sadistic puppet smiled, Shepard swore it reminded him of the same grin on Zek's face. He suddenly had second thoughts about staying to watch a few movies with the Jackals. He just wanted to get back to his cabin. Right now, he needed to be as far away from this manic laughter as possible.

* * *

Varvok had decided to sequester himself away with his men for the rest of the day. After the crap that had happened after the raid, he didn't want to have to deal with most of the fallout. Besides, he had work to do. Considering that their quarters aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ were rather cramped, he decided they needed to move. The _Ascendant Justice_ had plenty of room, so he asked Holland's intelligence officer, Haverson, if he could place his men aboard. The request, which he sent via mail as he did not to look at a human for a while, was granted. Haverson however did not give them any particular room though, he just handed them one of the larger storage rooms in the lower decks, just above the massive main hangar.

He didn't argue the matter, it was better than nothing and suited most of their needs. He set to work getting every Batarian to move their weapons and supplies to the new quarters. It was a relatively quick move, they didn't have much after all. Abandoning the mission you were supposed to be on got you cut off from potential re-supply. All they had now was what Zek could spare and what scraps the other humans could offer. He supposed he at least owed the _Normandy_ for giving them a steady stream of thermal clips as well as a recharger their salarian professor had made for the plasma weapons. Didn't make their situation any less problematic.

They were the only batarians in this galaxy now not under the sway of the Covenant, they had split from their government, they were working with humans and it was only a matter of time before that caught up with them. For all he knew, Balak was already prepping another expeditionary force to hunt them down and given the wonky time difference between universes, he could have already sent them off or was still in the process of deciding exactly what to do. That was bad enough, not knowing when your former mentor was going to strike and how hard he'd do it, couple that with the fact he had surrounded himself with former enemies and it just made things worse. He was now relying on humans, Shepard in particular, to protect him. It made him sick.

Coming to the decision to ally with Commander Shepard had been born out of desperation and the fact they had no other ideas. It took every ounce of willpower to swallow his pride and ask for his help, almost beg for it in fact. He at least had been been able to maintain his dignity then, now it seemed that was going to be harder. Shepard had made it painfully clear how little he would tolerate any questioning of his authority. That would make things problematic, he couldn't let his men think he'd kowtow to a human, any human. He needed to keep their respect, he had already asked a lot of them when they helped Zek's mutiny, he asked even more when they aligned with the humans. If they thought he had become the UNSC's lapdog he'd lose any confidence with them. He'd be seen as trading one corrupt master for another. It would ruin everything.

He wondered if Shepard appreciated this difficult situation. He probably didn't, he doubt he gave it much thought. Typical of humans, always so self-righteous but never willing to see the batarian side. He had risked his life in more ways than one by coming to the Commander, yet Shepard still didn't care. His mission overrode their own it seemed in his mind. Saving the UNSC was not important to Varvok though. Hurting the Covenant was. He either needed to get back home and start hitting his former comrades with the "Swords of Khar'Shan", Balak in particular, or he had to rip them apart here. Maybe, just maybe, if he became a big enough issue, the Covenant would pull out of Hegemony space, dissolve the alliance and decide to focus more on their war efforts here instead. Convince them they were neglecting the real fight, it was a sound strategy.

Of course, both options were demonstrably difficult in scope. He'd need help pulling it off, he knew that. Sadly, that meant working within the confines of the UNSC so long as he was stuck here. Working with humans, especially ones that still seemed to hold a grudge against him, was not ideal. Was Shepard doing anything to make that easier? Maybe, knowing him he was probably working an angle for a more stable alliance than as it was now, but he was not doing enough. After today, Varvok wondered if even he wanted to help the batarians or if he cared more about saving this galaxy's Earth at their expense.

As he lay in his makeshift cot, pondering this issue, he looked over to see one of his men looking at him expectantly. He rose to a sitting position and looked at the man.

"What is it soldier?" He asked politely.

"I just thought you should know, sir," he began astutely. "We've broken open one of the ration crates. We were wondering if you wanted anything special."

"I'm not feeling all that hungry, honestly," Varvok grumbled in return. "Today has been an annoyance. Hopefully when we reach this Hollow Zek speaks of we can at least get some more supplies."

The soldier nodded briefly, but started rubbing his hands a bit nervously. Varvok quickly picked up on this and turned to him inquisitively.

"Is there something on your mind?" He asked.

"Nothing, sir," he assured. "You have far more important issues, no doubt."

Many in fact, but the state of his men always came first for him.

"What is your name?" He asked the fellow batarian.

"Corporal Curverk, sir," he saluted. "From city state Sheikrok, District Eighty-Four. I transferred to your unit just before we jumped through the wormhole."

Varvok nodded, he remembered getting a lot of transfers just before they set off. They needed to have a full complement and part of the mission from the start was to give them all some much needed combat experience. He supposed in how busy he had been he hadn't been able to get to know everyone as much as he should. The fact was, in his position, you couldn't make the time for that always. A unit commander couldn't be everyone's friend, it made sending them off to die that much harder.

That didn't mean he had to be cold to them though.

"Curverk, you're free to speak your mind with me," he assured. "Never think you can't."

"Well, it's just a lot of the men have been talking," Curverk tried to explain. "I keep trying to put on a brave face and all, but, it's not easy given all that's happened. You see..."

Curverk took a breath, needing a moment to properly articulate his problem. When he did, it hit home.

"Are we ever going home, sir?"

Home, Varvok thought, what was that now? What was it going to become? Their people were being subjugated by a foreign alien entity and they didn't even know it. Hell, their government was actively leading them to it. He liked to keep hoping it wasn't intentional, but he wasn't sure of anything anymore. Getting home was not going to be easy, even if they did get back through the wormhole. Curverk probably joined up out of a sense of adventure, like most young batarians do, an escape. That sense of adventure had no doubt soured.

"It's become a bit too real hasn't it?" Varvok asked in return.

"More like unreal, to be honest," the Corporal admitted.

"I know, trust me, I know," Varvok told him. "And to be honest, I'm not sure when we'll get back. It's a lot more complicated than just heading to the wormhole. You understand, right?"

Curverk just nodded respectfully.

"All I can promise you, is that we will find a way through this," Varvok asserted confidently. "We're batarians, we've been fighting worse odds than this ever since we clawed our way into the stars. We'll survive, one way or another. And we'll take back what the Covenant is trying to steal from us. I swear to you."

Curverk's nervousness seemed to diminish slightly and he raised another salute.

"Thank you, sir," he said. "It's good to know we have someone like you leading us through this. Hopefully, the humans will learn to appreciate everything we've risked so far in time, you especially."

"One can hope, Corporal," Varvok concurred. "Humans aren't complete idiots. They'll learn to respect us, I'll make sure of it."

Curverk bowed his head slightly and departed. At least he had made one of his soldiers a little less anxious. Varvok wasn't sure how far it would go, but it was better than nothing. As he was about to turn back to his cot and think more about how exactly he could earn that respect, if it was even possible, his omni-tool rang. It was Zek of course. He wondered if it was worth answering, he was tired of this day. Then again, Zek and Retz were the only two aliens aboard this ship who he felt he could consistently trust and rely on. Best not to alienate the only friends you had. He answered the call and found both of said Jackals staring at him through the screen.

"Four-Eyes! Hope we aren't bothering you," Zek greeted.

"Not really," he told him through a low grumble. "I'm just pretty much done with today is all."

"You do look more like shit than usual," Zek noted. "Why don't you come down to the _Serpent_ , join us for some entertainment."

"I'm not interested in watching the holographic representations of naked kig-yar," he told Zek plainly.

"It's not that," Retz was quick to assure. "We scored something interesting aboard the _Normandy_ when I was in the systems you see."

Retz quickly explained how they had been watching a bunch of old human vids they had copied from the ship's computers. Varvok found the fact they had gotten away with that mildly amusing, it put him in better spirits than before at least. Didn't mean he was that interested in seeing humans all that much, even if they were just on a screen.

"I'm not sure I'd be up for watching that kind of stuff," he said, a slight smile on his face.

"I get you aren't a human fan, I'm not much one today myself," Zek admitted. "But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a good bit of classic storytelling that vids can bring. Like this next one we're watching, looks like a real winner, it's... what's it called again, Retz?"

" _Jaws_ , and the synopsis reads like something from the old sea legends back home," Retz explained. "Evil sea monster terrorizes the shoreline and a crew of mismatched individuals has to kill it. Take a look at the poster for it."

Retz pressed in a command that showed the image of a strange giant fish-like creature with a open maw full of teeth. It was swimming up from the murky depths towards an unaware female human, getting ready to swallow her whole from the looks of it. The title of the film was emblazoned above both monster and damsel. Zek just looked at the picture wide-eyed.

"Shit, is that a razorfin?" He asked, perplexed at the creature's appearance. "They got those on Earth too?"

"It's a bit smaller and with less teeth and eyes," Retz noted. "I don't think it has a second mouth either, but it's still pretty scary looking."

"Anything that even resembles a razorfin is scary," Zek argued. "This is going to give the crew nightmares. Get ready to set it up. What do you say, Varvok, interested now?"

He gave it a bit more thought. Perhaps he just needed something to get his mind off this junk. Hell, maybe a few of his men could use it too. What was the harm in watching some super old human cinema anyway? He was stuck living with them, he might as well see what they considered entertainment. Besides, Zek looked really hopeful, his eyes beaming with excitement through the screen.

"Alright, can I bring some of my men?" He asked.

"Sure, why not," Zek shrugged. "But bring your own snacks. We're already running a bit low here. Put that on the shopping list for the Hollow by the way, Retz."

"Already done," Retz assured, bringing up a data pad. "Get more snacks. We'll squeeze in the time somehow, but this trip is going to put a dent in our accounts for sure at this rate."

"See ya soon, Four-Eyes." Zek said, hanging up the call.

Varvok got up and looked over to his men. He was a bundle of nerves, but they were worse if Curverk was any indication. They deserved a break, he'd see if anyone was willing to join him. Perhaps it would be fun. Zek seemed to like these vids for whatever reason at least. Not accounting for taste, the pirate did know how to have a good time at least. So long as he didn't get super drunk again anyway.

* * *

"And they like this stuff?" Tali asked, sincerely surprised by the news.

"Apparently," Shepard shrugged as he took a seat on the sofa. "Who would've thought a playlist of movies from two centuries ago give or take a few years, would appeal to a bunch of alien pirates."

After a long day, it was good to just get back to cabin and relax. Tali had finished her shift shortly after he got back from his excursion to Zek's little movie night, so the timing was near perfect. He needed someone to unload all these thoughts and Tali was always eager to listen.

"I can understand why from a certain perspective," she admitted, taking a seat beside him. "When my own people fled our homeworld, we left a lot of our culture behind. For them, it's been slowly destroyed over centuries and they've been trying to fill the void it left ever since. You can't blame them for seeking it in another's society's popular entertainment."

"I suppose, it was mostly pirate related films they were checking out," Shepard concurred thoughtfully. "It doesn't change the facts of what they did. They still took advantage of their time in our systems and took something without permission. They didn't even seem to consider it a concern, just another thing they could resolve with barter later. Them offering compensation doesn't make me want to trust them again."

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Tali said, nodding her head sadly. "At least nothing important was taken. We can be thankful for that."

Shepard just sighed, placing his head back against the sofa.

"Maybe Miranda is right," he relented, almost defeated as he spoke. "Maybe this alliance is doomed to failure. All it's going to be is some convenient little arrangement and we'll be lucky if it lasts the whole way home."

"You've faced tougher odds than this, Wade," Tali reminded him. "You brought this crew together for a suicide mission after all."

"That's different," he explained wistfully, a growing sense of frustration as he spoke. "That was individuals on a case by case basis. These are factions, groups of people who all have a different idea of what they're doing here. The UNSC doesn't trust the defectors to have their backs when things get tough. Varvok and his batarians are only here because they have no other place to go, they don't have a choice. And Zek has made it clear that he just wants to be an arms merchant at best. He doesn't want to take a side, he just wants to profit."

Shepard raised his head and looked to Tali with a concerned grimace.

"I'm just not sure what it's going to take to get them all on the same page," he admitted. "Hell, I barely even know what I need to do to get the ball rolling."

Tali looked about thoughtfully for a moment as Shepard rubbed the side of his head. Eventually, she hit upon an idea.

"Well, consider this," she told him. "They did skirt their boundaries when they copied those vids, but Zek, Retz and their entire crew have found something in human culture that they enjoy. If nothing else, it proves they're open to accepting the UNSC. It's not much, but if they can find value in that, maybe they can find value in the rest of humanity too."

Shepard nodded slowly, taking in her words.

"I guess," he surmised. "Hell, maybe we'll get lucky. If they can see themselves a little in those old vids, they might actually learn something in due time. They might come out better for it. It's not exactly a firm foundation, but it's something."

Shepard smiled at the quarian, who returned the gesture with her beam eyes. As always, she knew just what to say to return his confidence and make him forget his worries. Tali placed a comforting hand on his shoulder at that moment. It then slowly slid around his neck to the other side as she placed her head against him.

"That's enough ship to ship politics for today," she told him sweetly. "You'll figure this out in due time, you always do. Right now, it's just you and me."

"Can't argue with that," Shepard grinned. "Any ideas for tonight?"

"Well," she replied, slyly. "Zek for all his faults has inspired me nonetheless. I bet the _Normandy's_ captain, my captain, can throw a much better vid night given the chance than an entire ship full of Jackals could ever hope to."

"I'm willing to take that bet," he declared. "What did you have in mind?"

"We'll just pick some vids from Joker's file," she said, her voice growing more sultry as she spoke. "And while we're watching, if the characters start to _connect_... well, we can see about testing if it's compatible with quarians."

Shepard felt a bit hot under the collar for a moment. If only because, what Tali was suggesting, seemed a bit more specific than something she had just thought up. Not that he wasn't excited at the idea, but...

"Did you have any films in mind?" He asked, trying not to sound to sheepish.

"Oh... just a small list," Tali assured. "I've had a lot of time to upgrade my visor. Joker's not the only one who needs some entertainment while they work."

Tali opened her omni-tool and transferred her "small" list to Shepard. It was a large file to say the least, although nothing too explicit. Joker tended to keep his "special private stash" in a much more secure place than where Retz had been looking. Joker didn't really want anyone finding out what he was into. That didn't mean Tali hadn't found some interesting stuff, as she clearly revealed by pointed to one vid in particular.

"In that one there's a scene where..." Tali leaned in close and finished her sentence, whispering through playful little giggles and seductive tones.

"First," Shepard said instantly.

"Thought you'd say that," Tali beamed happily. "I'll ask Gardner to bring up some popcorn for you, as well as some dextro snacks. Although I don't think we will be eating that much. Not in that way at least."

Shepard had to struggle to remember what happened in some of the movies on the list. He did not want to get shown up by Zek after all. And considering their next stop was a place full of more people just like said space pirate, he wanted to get every ounce of enjoyment out of tonight he could. If one Zek was problematic, how bad would a whole hollowed moon full of them be?

* * *

AN: Couldn't help myself, I added a little naughty fun at the end. Do not expect a separate sex scene outside the main story. Not happening. This is not a thing we're doing. I don't write smut. Nothing against it. I would just awkward, it would feel awkward and let's be honest, I have no real experience with this junk anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless and that you got a chuckle or two out things. This effectively closes out the opening portion of the story and leads into the real meat of things. Come back next time when we finally reach the Hollow. For now, be sure to review, check my profile for a link to further notes from me on this chapter and have a great day.


	5. Den of Jackals

**Chapter Four: Den of Jackals**

 _Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality._

 _-Friedrich Nietzsche_

The following morning was a hard one for many a kig-yar who had stayed up too late and drunk too much. Not that any of them seemed to regret it, but they were still sluggish in getting to their duties. They had enjoyed themselves and found something new to give them pleasure. The human vids were a hit by all accounts, as were a number of the songs they had heard, both during the films and between them. Several of the _Fallen Serpent's_ crew could still be heard singing "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me" or "Spanish Ladies" from the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ and _Jaws_ films respectively. The only cloud that dampened last night's festivities was the simple fact they had nearly run their stores dry. What little remained of their Ichor was almost all gone.

Thankfully, there was no panic over this. After all, today they knew they'd be arriving at the Hollow. There they would restock their stores and make repairs. They'd have their precious Chorka Bile soon enough, all they had to do was be patient.

Zek had woken up with the usual hangover, a bowl of what was left of the popcorn, as the humans called it, over his head. There were a few of his crew still in the rec-room with him, all sleeping like chicks in their nest. After stretching for a bit he got up and silently looked around for Retz, he found him in his quarters looking almost as out of it as him. His eyes were sagging and he seemed to slump about the room groaning.

"Retz, are you hungover too?" Zek asked in surprise.

"Of course not," he denied. "I don't drink Ichor, remember? I didn't start last night."

"So why do you look like you're half dead?" Zek asked suspiciously.

Retz staggered over to a small keg against the wall, filled with water, and poured himself a small glass.

"I don't know, I'm just so low on energy for some reason," he tried to explain. "Maybe it was something we took from the _Normandy_. Could've been the apples, or the popcorn, those fizzy drinks with the fruity flavors, I ate a bunch of those strange brown bars. They all tasted great going down, now I got this weird aftertaste in my mouth and my legs feel like they want to take the day off."

"Well we're going to have to solve that mystery later," Zek informed him. "We got a busy day today. We'll get some real food in ya and make preparations. How's our ETA?"

Retz quickly sipped his water and took a look at a nearby terminal. Tapping in a few commands he started to nod.

"We still have six or so hours before we reach the Hollow's system," he reported. "Plenty of time to go over things. I suggest we meet with Shepard as soon as possible. Hopefully he's gotten over his disagreement with us from last night."

"He will after today when we get him what he wants," Zek assured. "Simple economics. Besides, it was all worth it in the end. That _Jaws_ vid was just what the crew needed, it was just like the old stories from home. Sea monsters, high seas drama, everything you could want in a good story."

"Yes, I enjoyed it too," Retz agreed. "The shark creature would've been scarier if it had a second mouth though. And it was shame what happened to Captain Quint."

Zek nodded sadly at the reminder. He almost wished he had a hat to take off in solemn respect.

"Poor Quint, a true sailor that human," the pirate leader proclaimed. "An honest working man who faced his greatest fears in the pursuit of fortune. So much like our forefathers. At least he managed to pass his adventurous spirit onto Brody and Hooper before his death."

"Yes, and Brody ultimately avenged Quint, overcoming his own fear of the sea," Retz added. "It's just a shame a good man died in the process. Still a riveting story, fairly atypical of some of the more famous monster legends."

Retz downed the rest of his water and slammed the cup upside down on his desk.

"I've been thinking," Zek said scratching his neck. "We could make a business opportunity out of these vids. Human media is a rare bit of contraband in Covenant space. There's probably a few people out there who would be interested in this stuff and we got a whole file full of it no one else has. Hell a few of them are even from another universe entirely, making them ultra rare. We'd sell the vids low of course, but if we got the demand high enough we'd easily start turning a sizable profit. All we'd have to do is figure out a distribution angle."

"Something to look into," Retz agreed. "But right now, lets worry about getting the _Serpent_ back up to working order. That is going to require some doing, even with our bartering chip."

"I got it under control," Zek assured confidently. "Just cause you got all the contacts and sources doesn't mean I'm no slouch in the negotiation department. He's going to want to meet with me anyway, it will go smoother that way."

"Fine, I'm just advising caution," Retz said grimly. "He didn't get all those nicknames playing nice. We've also been out of the game for years, we don't know how much things have changed."

Zek just smiled his usual cocky smile.

"So long as kig-yar desire credits, ichor and guns, nothing has really changed," Zek stated firmly. "Now come on, the _Normandy_ awaits. We have a shopping trip to look over."

Retz just "hmmed" in agreement and started following Zek out the door. He grabbed a datapad on his way, the one that contained their long list of thing to acquire while on the Hollow. It would be an expensive and long day, they didn't want to risk forgetting something.

"Now that I think of it," Retz said, his mind wandering for a moment. "I think Ms. Lawson will actually have more lingering concerns than Shepard. She doesn't seem to appreciate disorder and disruption in any capacity."

"So much like all females then," Zek observed with a hearty laugh. "Another thing we share with the humans, their women are as imposing as our own."

"Not nearly as good-looking though," Retz heartily added.

The two pirates laughed at that. A brief second later, they began to sing as they walked down the corridor.

"Farewell and adieu to you, fair Eayn ladies,/Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Eayn./For we've received orders to sail for the Hollow/And so nevermore shall we see you again!"

Zek's disappointment with yesterday had evaporated by now. Today was a new beginning. The _Serpent_ would be back to normal, they'd be restocked with all the supplies they could need and, most importantly, they'd establish their return to the pirating underworld. After today the real work could begin and with any luck it would be the first real step forward for them in working something out with the humans. The climb back up the ladder began today.

* * *

Miranda was standing at the airlock when it opened, revealing unwelcome appearance of Zek, Retz and three others of his Jackal ilk. Zek was wearing his usual slick salesman smile, while Retz held a platter of some sort with what appeared to be sandwiches of some kind. She didn't know what they were but her nose told it was something disgusting.

"Ms. Lawson," Zek said grinning. "How good it is to see you again. Did you sleep well?"

"I spent my entire night changing access codes and redoubling automated security checks for my personal files and classified data," she answered, her displeasure clearly audible. "I did not sleep."

"How unfortunate," Zek replied, only somewhat embarrassed for asking the question.

At least he didn't ask why, he was smart enough to know the answer. He then ushered Retz closer, bringing the stink of the sandwiches closer. Miranda had to resist the urge to grab her nose, not wanting to show any sense of weakness in front of these deviants.

"Given the events of yesterday and considerable strain they placed on you, I felt a peace offering was in order," Zek declared. "Now I know I said I would replace your food during our trip to the Hollow, and I intend to, but as a gesture of good faith, we figured we'd use some of our own food stores to make you a nice treat."

"Toasted Eskoza Sandwiches," Retz declared happily. "Just like they make in the Northwestern end of the continent."

Miranda looked down at the platter and could see the near burnt sandwiches, dripping some kind of green goo off the side. Part of her want to throw up just look at it. The other part wanted to smash the platter in Retz' face for payback. Her better nature took over and she simply took the platter from the Jackal's hands.

"How considerate of you," she replied in monotone. "I am sure the crew will love them."

She looked around and saw crewmember Hawthorne walking by the airlock on his morning rounds. Without hesitation she called the man over and shoved the platter of disgusting space pirate food into his arms.

"Take that down to Mess Sergeant Gardner, would you?" She asked, mocking politeness. "As fast as possible, if you please."

Hawthorne looked like he was about to throw up himself, but Miranda shot him a glare. He didn't offer any other form of protest and quickly rushed off. She turned back to the pirate envoy, hoping to get through this as fast as possible from here on out.

"Commander Shepard is still placing a team together to accompany you when we arrive at the Hollow," Miranda informed them. "We are also waiting for Varvok's entourage. We can wait for them in the briefing room, if you'll just follow me."

Miranda led them down the bridge corridor towards the back of the Command Deck. The three other Jackals marveled at the ship as they walked past the various terminals lining the corridor. The crewmembers manning the stations did their best not to stare, but it was hard not to. One of the Jackals tried to peer over one crewmember's shoulder, he quickly blocked his screen and glared at him. The Jackal hissed at the terminal jockey, but Zek brought him back into line.

"Now, now, there," he warned his fellow pirate. "We are guests aboard this vessel, we must respect their protocols. No sense in riling up our friends, is there?"

"No boss," the Jackal sighed. "Sorry, boss."

Miranda quickened her pace, the sooner they were sequestered in the briefing room the better. She took them through the left access way. She didn't want to risk them snatching something from the armory. She didn't want to think what would happen if they got their hands on a Cain.

Yes they'd briefly be in Mordin's lab, but the salarian had locked away anything potentially dangerous. He probably wouldn't mind, he was too busy setting up a hydroponics lab aboard the _Crusty Chorka_. No one, save the Jackals probably, wanted to eat alien food for however long it took to get home. Given what the sandwiches from earlier looked like, that was probably for the best. She'd rather starve than be stuck relying on these pirates to feed her.

Once they were inside the briefing room, she pointed them to one side of the table and took her place at the other end.

"Fancy briefing room," Zek observed. "And so clean, much better than back on our ship. I imagine this is your doing, Ms. Lawson."

"As Executive Officer I am tasked with maintaining ship sanitation among other duties," she conceded. "So yes, it is partially my doing."

"No doubt," Zek grinned. "See, this is what the Covenant never understood. Females are a necessary factor for any well-maintained crew. They're so much better at organization and such."

"I suspected that the same would be true of human females myself, sir," Retz agreed.

Miranda rolled her eyes, flattery from space pirates. Unsubtle and incredibly transparent flattery, no less, all in an attempt to get back in her good graces. She just hoped that, unlike previous men who had tried to use similar lines in the past, they had no other designs beyond getting in the good graces of Commander Shepard's second officer. She decided to keep the pirates on task.

"Perhaps you could explain again exactly what you're searching for in this place we're going to?" She asked them, her disgruntled tone still readily apparent. "Besides your new and improved Slipspace drive, what else are you looking for?"

"Food, Ichor, a functioning intercom system," Retz listed off efficiently. "Parts for potential upgrades to our plasma cannons and cloak. Shields and armor could always use some strengthening. That's just to name a few things."

"We might be a small ship, but it's a lot of work to keep it running," Zek added pleasantly. "I'm sure you know full well what that's like yourself."

"I do," Miranda replied, her tone slightly harsher than before. "The _Normandy_ is not your average frigate and requires more than your average crew. Keeping it running as smoothly as it does is a challenge. That is especially so when others compromise the day to the day operations of this ship with behavior I find... questionable."

Zek's grin finally dropped, put off by her emphasis on the word "questionable" it seemed. He coughed slightly, trying his best to cover up the tension. Miranda didn't show it, but she took no small sense of pride in wiping that dumb grin off the pirate's face. If he really wanted to get on her good side, on Shepard's good side, he'd have to do better than this.

The Commander himself thankfully appeared mere seconds later, Garrus and Legion in tow. Now they could get down to business, at least Miranda hoped they would. Those hopes were dashed when she saw Retz nudging Zek with a curious look on his face. Miranda could easily overhear the short exchange that followed.

"What's with the hole?" Retz asked in a hushed whisper.

"It's a personal thing," Zek answered in a similar whisper. "Don't ask me how robots think when I barely get humans."

Zek quickly cleared his throat and looked to Shepard.

"Commander, thank you for letting us come aboard," he greeted. "I trust this is the team who will be accompanying us today?"

"Two of them," Shepard replied plainly. "Grunt is still sleeping, he had a long night from what I understand. Lots of vids and way more alcohol this time."

"He drunk a whole keg of ichor from the tap," Retz explained shrugging. "He really wanted to get drunk this time. You try saying no to a giant lizard with a fist the size of your head."

"Yes, I imagine so," Shepard said, only slightly grinning from what Miranda could see. "How was _Jaws_ by the way? He said that was the last one you watched before you started just blasting music."

"An excellent work of fiction," Zek declared happily. "Your sea monsters are certainly something to behold, not nearly as terrifying as ours, but almost as vicious. A Razorfin probably would've eaten the Orca much faster though."

Shepard nodded slightly.

"I didn't realize that was a competition, having scary sea creatures I mean," he noted. "I take it Razorfins are a lot like our sharks."

"They're a lot bigger and have a second mouth," Retz clarified. "But more or less yes."

Miranda didn't want to think about what an alien version of _Jaws_ would look like, especially with that description. Shepard graciously eased the conversation on to less nightmare inducing topics.

"We would like to know more about this Hollow place before we proceed further," he explained. "What exactly are we dealing with here? How dangerous is it?"

"No more than your regular port of call out here in the void," Zek assured confidently. "I'm sure you have your fair share of outlaw stations where you're from, Commander. Criminals need places to hide more than most after all."

"We get the picture, it's a pirate hideout" Garrus grumbled. "What we really want to know is what to expect when we're there."

Zek for once gave his answer some thought.

"Well I've already told you about not sending humans with us," he finally responded. "The issue isn't that they hate them down there, it's just it stirs things up. Gets people suspicious and, from what I hear, usually ends badly because of it."

"So have humans come to this station before?" Shepard asked.

"We've never seen them, but a few years back there was supposedly a small group of them," Retz replied succinctly. "It did not go well for them I'm afraid. No one is really sure what happened to them exactly, but, as I recall, they never found every piece of them."

Legion's plates contorted slightly in a curious gesture.

"To our knowledge, no UNSC vessel has ever traveled to this area of space," the geth stated. "It is unlikely these humans belonged to any official military branch."

"Probably Insurrectionists then," Shepard surmised. "There are some still around from what Holland has told us before. I guess they wouldn't be above making deals with criminals to further their cause, regardless of species."

"They would have all the fancy plasma guns," Miranda fielded.

"Point is, if they spot humans, things will probably get ugly," Zek reiterated. "So it's best we don't have any of you tag along."

"And what about me, Legion and Grunt?" Garrus asked suspiciously. "We're not going to get the same attention?"

Zek gave both the turian and geth a quick dress down.

"Well you look like a sangheili screwed a yanme'e," he told Garrus bluntly. "But other than that, you're not human and neither is your scary big reptile friend sleeping below. Unless you're currently wanted for extinction by the Covenant, no one is really going to care. I'd keep your helmets on just to be safe though. You never know who might be watching. As for the machine..."

Legion stared at Zek for a moment and the pirate began to scratch his chin in response.

"He's a freaky looking synth, that you can't hide," he admitted. "Not many folks out here trust AIs, lot of superstitions. They think they're always plotting, at a million miles a minute, not something most kig-yar are okay with, something that might be more cunning than us."

"We do not plot," Legion noted plainly. "We analyze and base conclusions on relevant observations to reach a consensus. Our processing speed is also much faster at several millions more times within the course of a few seconds. Such superstitions are unwarranted."

"Yeah, that's why they're called superstitions," Retz explained aloud hesitantly. "Also, that is not helping resolve them."

"Still, worst danger for him is someone trying to buy or steal him for parts," Zek informed the room rather plainly. "To be honest, that kinda is a danger we all face. Never go near any shops in one of the closed off sections, different species organs can go for a lot depending on rarity."

There was a long awkward silence after that. Zek could only grin sheepishly. Miranda, not wanting to endure this inanity much longer, broke the quiet at last.

"I fear to ask," she began. "But what kind of organs would someone try to steal, exactly?"

"Well, I don't know how much a turian's kidneys would be worth," Zek postulated. "But considering he's the only one around..."

"Okay, buddy system it is," Garrus declared suddenly. "We don't need to start putting prices on my organs right now."

"Could be useful to know in the future though," Retz suggested. "You only need one kidney anyway. At least I assume you do."

Garrus just grimaced at the Jackal in response.

"I just meant you might need some spare credits," Retz tried to clarify. "We've never actually harvested organs, we just know people who do."

"That is hardly reassuring," Garrus informed him.

"Well if someone here needs a new liver or lung it will be," Zek spoke up defensively. "You gotta think ahead on these things. You never know what might hit you, literally."

Miranda sighed heavily, placing her face into her hands. She felt her brain shutting down just listening to this conversation. She never in her life felt happier to see a batarian, as Varvok and two of his men walked through the door next. Sure, she didn't like him much better than the Jackals, but at least Varvok took things seriously. Zek seemed to be in his own world half the time.

"Four-eyes," the pirate leader greeted. "Good of you to join us. We were discussing the black market rates of alien organs. Always a good ice-breaker."

Miranda was not sure if he was serious or not, but other things were on her mind. Both Shepard and Varvok were giving each other glares. Considering how their last face to face meeting ended, she hoped she wouldn't have to step in and keep them from killing each other. Thankfully the two of them backed down, tabling whatever grievances they had for the moment.

"Apologies for running late," Varvok explained. "I needed time to go over my own supply list for today. Picking soldiers to join me was also problematic."

"Any particular reason why?" Shepard asked sternly.

"If you must know, they're wary of us working with your squad," Varvok explained in a low growl. "I had to alleviate concerns. Not to mention screen candidates to insure there would be no problems, personal or otherwise, within my team."

"Well, I'm glad you've taken the general safety of everyone into account for this supply run," Shepard told the batarian, his face still cross. "I appreciate that."

"I would hope so," Varvok answered back, a slight sense of vitriol in his voice.

Shepard turned back to Zek, the brief confrontation over for the moment.

"Now, let's get back to what we were really talking about," he said. "The Hollow, what sorts of things are sold there?"

"What isn't?" Zek hypothetically asked in return. "Like I've told you before, they got food, weapons, armor, equipment, upgrades for ships, hell you could probably buy a shuttle or two if you looked for it."

"I'm assuming most of this stuff is stolen," Garrus spoke up accusingly.

"Not from anyone you know," Zek casually stated. "A lot of it is Covenant tech, who I doubt any of you care about pissing off. And any human stuff you're ultimately reclaiming for Holland and his boys. Win-Win on that front."

Miranda didn't think Holland would object to re-acquiring stolen human property, especially if it helped them on their way home. As she recalled though, it wasn't as simple as Zek was trying to claim.

"How much is this going to cost us, exactly?" She asked bluntly. "You've said human weapons go for a lot on your black market before."

"It runs a bit high, yeah," Zek admitted. "But Retz has done the math. We can probably barter to get a whole mess of human weapons and ammo for just one Wraith tank. We got plenty of those in the Carrier."

"So we'd be giving a bunch of pirates a tank," Shepard noted. "Is that a good idea?"

"Kig-yar rarely use those kind of vehicles," Retz assured. "Mostly they strip the things for parts. Our kind prefers fast, lightning strike vehicles or ships. Tanks are just too bulky, slow us down mostly. Chances are by the time we're loaded up and about to leave, the whole thing will be disassembled. The plasma cores in those things are really useful for portable energy sources."

Legion lurched it's head up suddenly.

"We calculate the risk to be minimal, regardless of accuracy of Pirate-Retz's statement," it surmised. "One or two Wraiths when traded in kind for an assortment of human weapons is more advantageous to us long term. Chances of risk decrease further if heavy weapons are acquired during exchange."

"Creepy robot is right, it's a fair trade," Zek added. "Plus the Covenant stay out of this space anyway and they don't do business with the Hollow. It's not going to wind up back with them, not for awhile anyway."

"That may be so, but it does stress a point I want to make," Shepard firmly declared. "I want to keep informed about every transaction. I want to know what we're trading and what for. Especially with the food, it goes without saying my crew wants things they can eat."

"We'll find something, I promise," Zek replied calmly. "There's a lot of vendors there with food from all over the galaxy. Fresh fruit, meats, the works. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff down there you can eat."

"Why don't the Covenant come out here?" Miranda suddenly asked.

Zek and Retz turned to her, looking a bit wary as they did.

"What gives them pause?" She asked again, more direct this time. "They're the most powerful military force out here. Why would they refrain from entering it?"

"You don't want to get on the bad side of pirates and there's a lot here," Retz explained. "It would be more trouble than it's worth, especially with their little war against the humans. Their attention is on wiping your species out, leaving a number of pirate gangs to their work unmolested. The Hollow is way outside their controlled space, no man's land if you will."

"How many pirate gangs are we talking about?" Garrus asked curiously. "We best know what we're walking into here, in case a fight breaks out."

"There's not nearly as many as you might think," Zek replied solemnly. "The Covenant hit a lot of the bigger fleets hard in the past. There are mostly smaller gangs now, two or three ships a piece. They're mostly small time, just barely holding on. There are still bigger players out there in the underworld that can give the Covenant pause, but only if they limit their forays into Covenant space. They prefer to keep a low profile these days, as minimal heat as possible. You attract too much attention and that causes problems."

Legion looked to Zek directly now, it's plates loosened slightly across it's metallic brow.

"Is this how you found yourself entrapped in the Covenant's employ?" The Geth questioned.

"More or less," Zek shrugged lightly. "It was pretty dumb to operate like I did with only one ship to my name. But I was younger then, prone to more mistakes."

Miranda let the pirate's words sink in. Suddenly Zek's need to grab a Carrier made more sense. Building up a fleet was as much about security for himself as it was returning to glory. He didn't want to be a victim again and she supposed she understood that in a sense. Didn't make her like him though.

She turned to Shepard and saw the look on his face, similar to her own. He had probably picked up on the same thing she had. As much as they disagreed from time to time, Shepard was no idiot. He could read people, he knew them, it was why he was the leader. She suspected he'd try to use this to his advantage, to bring Zek further into the fold. She didn't know if it would work, but it was still something to think about.

Her thought were on another subject though.

"Are there any big players on the Hollow currently?" She asked the two Jackals.

Retz looked about hesitantly before answering.

"One, but he's not a danger," he finally answered, scratching his feathers as he did. "Well, he is dangerous, but he shouldn't be a problem. We just need to get the slipspace drive from him, one item, real fast, in and out. We have that covered."

"Who is he?" Garrus insistently asked.

"His name would mean nothing to you," Retz begrudgingly replied. "Just know, he's a big bird on the Hollow. We will handle him. He's not your concern."

"Considering you need him for the most important piece of your repairs I think we deserve to know a bit more about him," Miranda stated. "The tech we've given you is minor, but it's still ours. I'd like to know where it's-"

Suddenly, Miranda stopped. Her eyes darted to each Jackal in the room. She counted their ugly little heads silently in her mind. It was then she realized that there were only four of them.

"Where's the third?" She asked.

Zek and Retz looked around them, the former eventually speaking up.

"What do you-?"

"The third crewmember you brought," Miranda shouted, cutting Zek off. "Where is he?"

As if to answer her question, Mess Sergeant Gardner's voice came over the intercom.

" _Shepard! You better get down here! One of those friggin thieving feather dusters is here and he got into my pantry again!"_

Shepard slapped his hand into his palm, groaning as he did. Varvok, however, just grinned widely, chuckling a bit as he did.

"Just hold him," Shepard ordered Gardner. "I'll be down in a second."

" _I don't have to hold him,"_ Gardner replied angrily. _"The little bastard is propped up against the counter shaking like a box of springs and jibbering to himself. I think he got into something he shouldn't have. Chakwas is taking a look at him now, but seriously, just get down here!"_

Shepard looked even more annoyed and he joined everyone's collective glare towards Zek. The pirate was currently trying, and failing, to put on an innocent face.

"Heh, what can I say," he said, rubbing his palms together frantically. "My men are slippery crooks. You gotta admire them for their craft though. Even I didn't know he was gone."

Shepard glowered and began to head out of the room, Garrus and Legion close behind. Miranda followed closely behind, her hopes of this being over quickly dashed.

* * *

The Jackal was laying against the counter, his eyes twitching and his limbs shaking about wildly. Chakwas was struggling to keep his head pointed forward as he seemed to be hyper aware of his surroundings. A small crowd had gathered around, looking at the jabbering space pirate like he was some kind of sideshow.

"Honestly, how did you even get in the damn pantry?" Gardner asked angrily. "I changed the locks and everything!"

"He'd be a poor thief if he couldn't figure a way around that," Kasumi said, currently propping herself on the counter's corner.

Shepard eventually arrived, pushing past the crowd, his frustration clear as day on his face. Miranda managed to make it through the crowd herself, she eyed the jittery pirate and Chakwas attempts to diagnosis him.

"What in the hell happened?" He demanded to know.

Jack stepped up out of the crowd, as did Thane who was close by.

"Uh, I kinda know," she began. "Gardner was grumbling about those disgusting sandwiches or something, trying to pawn them off on anyone he could find. Me and Thane were just shooting the shit, having a drink, and then bird brain here starts screeching like a mad man."

"Yes, it was most alarming," Thane added. "He ran around for awhile, bounced off a few walls, bowled over Goldstein when she tried to catch him and then slammed into the counter. He's been like that ever since."

Shepard looked back to the Jackal, who continued to jabber nonsensically.

"Has anyone tried to ask him what he ate?" He questioned.

"He's not much for talking," Chakwas explained, trying to look inside the Jackal's mouth. "Not unless it's gibberish."

Miranda moved behind the counter, determined to find the answer herself. Kasumi moved to her side as she bent down near the pantry. Opening the door she found an open pack laying out in the open, white power leaking out from it's torn casing. She lifted it up for all to see, taking a peak at the label.

"Sugar?" She said in astonishment.

Kasumi dipped a finger into the pack, pulled it back out and licked it.

"Oh yeah, pure white sugar," she confirmed. "Not a sweetener or synthetic, it's the real stuff, straight from the sugar cane."

"Damn right, I only use authentic ingredients," Gardner declared proudly. "The real stuff was good for centuries before people got all health conscious. Ooh, it's addictive and makes us fat! Well of course it does! It's food! That's it's entire purpose!"

"And we appreciate your dedication to your craft, Mess Sergeant," Miranda assured him, trying to calm him down. "Right now though we have more pressing issues."

It was then the crowd got pushed apart as Zek and Retz forced their way to the front. Zek took one look at his afflicted crewmate and then towards Miranda. He spotted the pack of sugar in her hand instantly.

"Is that what's causing this?" He asked.

Miranda handed the pack to Kasumi who brought it over to the two pirates. They gave it a look over, eyeing it curiously.

"We call it sugar," Shepard informed them. "It's a sweet substance we use in food preparation. Your crewmember got into it somehow."

"From the looks of what's left he downed over half the pack," Kasumi noted aloud.

The two pirates looked from the sugar to their chattering shaking crewmate and then back to the sugar. Retz placed a claw inside and, before anyone could stop him, he licked his fingertip. His head jumped back suddenly a sudden smile growing across his face.

"Holy shit," he shouted jubilantly. "This stuff is amazing! It's like someone poured a whole keg of Southern Sweet Berry juice into my mouth! My head is already tingling!"

"All that from one finger dip?" Thane asked curiously. "Seems a bit extreme."

Chakwas finally sighed and pulled away, her examination seemingly complete as she put away her equipment.

"Well that settles it then," she announced. "He's not sick. This jackal is just in the middle of a damn sugar rush."

"Seriously?" Jack asked, stifling a laugh at the diagnosis. "He's just hopped up on sugar?"

"Apparently so," Chakwas answered plainly. "Their species' physiology must be more susceptible to the regular effects of sugar on the body. He'll eventually hit the wall any moment now, once the initial energy burst wears thin."

Almost as if on cue, the afflicted Jackal's jabbering ended and went flat against the counter's side. He moaned slightly, clutching at his head. Retz approached slowly, Zek by his side.

"Korz," Retz asked, slapping him lighting against the face. "What happened? Why'd you run down here?"

"Ugh, sorry, sirs," he relented, sounding very out of it. "I just wanted to find out what I ate last night that gave me such a buzz. It was light, but it was a major rush, very sweet. I snuck out of the meeting room, got down here, broke through the lock and, well, I started tasting stuff. Then I found that pack."

He pointed to the sugar Zek held in his clutches.

"Once I felt the buzz again I, well, I couldn't help myself," he relented. "I shoved it into my face and the rest is a blur after that."

Korz dropped his head slightly again, letting out another exhausted moan while rubbing his head.

"He looks a lot like you did this morning," Zek observed, looking to Retz.

"Yes, but I don't remember eating any of that white stuff last night," Retz explained. "A few of those brown sweet bars, yes, but-"

"That would be a candy bar," Miranda informed him bluntly. "Chocolate to be precise. It has quite a bit of sugar in it."

Zek looked back down at the sugar in his hands and Miranda noted a strange grin grow across his face. The Pirate leader whistled suddenly and his two other flunkies rushed up towards him.

"Take Crewmen Korz back to the ship, we're going to need a new third man it seems," he ordered them. He then placed the sugar in the claws of one of the underlings. "And send this to my quarters. Do not eat it. I want to have a better look at it later."

"Haven't you stolen enough food from us?" Miranda reminded him.

"Eh, don't bother arguing, ma'am," Gardner told her grouchily. "Far as I'm concerned, that pack is no good anymore. It's got space pirate germs all over it."

Miranda dropped any further complaints and Shepard didn't have any of his own to add. It's was just sugar after all, not exactly important. The crowd of onlookers more or less dispersed as the tired Jackal was led away. Zek and Retz were now the new centers of attention for all those who remained.

"Well, no harm no foul I suppose," Zek shrugged.

"I wouldn't say that," Shepard replied grimacing. "Causing a disturbance on my ship for one thing, one of your men stealing again another. I'm starting to think this is a repeat pattern."

"Our man had a sweet tooth and caused a ruckus," Retz said dismissively. "Hardly a cause for alarm. Besides, as I understand it, you're pretty lax on kleptomania in any case. Ms. Goto is proof enough of that."

Kasumi backed away slightly as Retz waved his hand towards her.

"Hey, whoa," she said hesitantly. "Let's not involve me here. I haven't stolen anything in... hours, I swear."

Miranda walked up beside her and casually held out her hand. Kasumi sighed and placed an OSD in her hand.

"Garrus' personal playlist," she relented, looking to the turian. "Sorry."

"I've been looking for that," the turian stated, snatching the OSD from Miranda's hand. He gave Kasumi a bit of a glare.

"Funny," Kasumi said smirking. "I didn't expect you of all people to have the soundtrack for _Fle_ -"

"That is private and if you tell anyone you'll regret it, I swear," Garrus growled slightly.

Zek and Retz laughed slightly, a bit smug in their enjoyment. Miranda was quick to knock that out of them.

"Kasumi has more than earned our trust," Miranda informed them. "And she never takes mission critical supplies either."

"Indeed."

The serene yet direct tone of Samara was unmistakable. She walked up beside Shepard, her gaze firmly on the two space pirates before her.

"I suspected letting you aboard would be trouble," she said sternly. "It seems I have been proven correct twice now."

"I hardly call this little ruckus trouble," Zek chuckled. "Just a minor cultural misunderstanding, is all."

"I am more than aware of your culture," Samara bluntly stated, a tone of disgust as she spoke. "Avarice is a virtue for you. You live off of vice to obtain wealth and power. This makes you less than reputable allies and you have done nothing so far to disprove this assumption."

"Well, when you put it like that," Zek said, casually scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, of course it sounds bad. We're really nice guys though, honest. We just make a living doing some things that are not entirely exactly one hundred percent legal. We all break a law or two here and there."

"Laws are only part of it," Samara informed him. "Morality trumps it in regards to justice. Unjust laws exist, but what is wrong is a constant."

Neither Zek or Retz seemed to understand at all what the asari was getting at. They just cocked their heads and looked bewildered at each other.

"Uh, who are you again?" Zek finally asked. "I don't believe we've formally met."

"I am Samara, an Asari Justicar," she stated plainly. "I am an enforcer of justice both within and beyond Asari-Controlled Space."

"Oh, a cop," Zek grumbled. "Well I should've guessed that."

Jack chuckled a bit at that description.

"Yeah, cop," she lightly laughed. "That's rich."

The Jackals just ignored the ex-con's derisive laughter.

"Ms. Samara, please do not think ill of us for our past grievances," Retz requested in a clear attempt at smooth talking. "After all, a few misunderstandings between friends is hardly a reason to condemn us. We are after all on the same side more or less. The Covenant are certainly more unjust than any of us."

"The degree of your guilt is hardly a determining factor in this case," Samara explained. "It is merely a fact that makes this situation... unique."

She turned to Shepard, her features and tone growing more serious.

"Shepard, I am still honor bound to you, but I again advise caution," she told him. "We are sending people into a lair full of these less than reputable individuals. It is a mistake to linger there long."

"Garrus and the others are more than prepared to handle the situation," he assured her. "He was on Omega for a long time, remember?"

"I'm also a former cop," Garrus noted aloud, turning his attention to Zek himself. "So I know what to watch out for."

Zek snorted, but said nothing further. Miranda supposed he realized he didn't really have much room to argue at this point. Samara, however, was not done despite these assurances.

"Tread lightly, Shepard," she warned. "These ones are only questionable allies. Everyone within this Hollow is just as greedy, but not as desperate for friends."

"I'm not that desperate," Zek proclaimed jovially. "I got plenty of friends, I just like hanging out with you."

Samara didn't seem to appreciate Zek's slimy grin anymore than Miranda, as she shot a cold stare at him.

"Be forever grateful we met under these circumstances," she said. "Were I not bound to Shepard, I would be forced to carry out my Code."

"Code?" Zek asked confused. "What? You'd arrest me?"

"I'm afraid it would be a bit more permanent than that," Kasumi informed him, chuckling nervously.

At last Zek got the message and his slick little smile vanished from his face. The newfound tension in the air was thankfully broken by a loud boisterous voice coming out of the elevator.

"I smelled something from below deck," Grunt said, sniffing hard at the air. "What's Gardner made now?"

His eyes suddenly fell upon the platter of disgusting sandwiches Retz had brought over. They were still sitting on the nearby counter top. Everyone had more or less forgotten about them in the commotion. Grunt quickly rushed over and bit into one of them. He then took another, throwing it into his mouth and loudly chewing it.

"Hey, these aren't half bad," Grunt mumbled. "For once, you've made something with real kick to it, Gardner."

Gardner was speechless, but Retz smiled greatly as the krogan kept stuffing his face.

"So, uh, we still got some time until we reach our destination," Zek declared. "How about we all relax and watch one of these old Earth vids of yours. I'm interested in finding out who these _Blues Brothers_ are."

Shepard sighed and looked to Kasumi.

"Do you mind entertaining them for awhile?" He asked her.

Miranda could just tell that Shepard actually meant "Could you keep them out of trouble until we're good to leave?" It was just written in his painfully frustrated voice and the dour look on his face.

"No sweat, Shep," Kasumi assured. "I like that movie anyway."

She began to lead to lead the two of Jackals towards her room.

"Maybe if we have some time later I can show you guys some Japanese cinema," she said to them as they walked behind her. "I've seen all the classics, _Rashomon_ , _Seven Samurai_ , _Godzilla vs. Mothra_ , basically the best my countrymen of the era had to offer."

Miranda was happy to have them out of their hair. They'd still have to deal with Varvok for awhile, but he wasn't being a nuisance at the moment. She took time to walk over to Jack, because she still had one lingering question on her mind.

"You were having drinks with Thane?" She asked pryingly.

The ex-con jumped up slightly, looking a bit flustered.

"Why don't you fuck off to do your hair or something cheerleader," she grumbled in a flustered manner. "I don't need to tell you shit."

She then turned to Thane as she moved away from Miranda.

"Come on, Lizard," she said. "This place got way too crowded, way too fast. I ain't done with my story yet."

"Yes, I really do think the Hanar would appreciate more information about that space station you crashed into the moon," he told her.

"I ain't telling it for them," she grumbled. "I just think it's cool."

Miranda smirked slightly as they walked off. As annoying as this day had started out, it still had it's moments.

* * *

The Hollow was not your typical pirate hideaway. It wasn't a space station or some secret island, it was a moon. Just an ordinary looking moon floating around a large craggy red planet. According to Retz' brief, the dark grey rock used to be full of valuable minerals. A bunch of Jackal deep space explorers found it and did what they did best, exploited it. They set up a small mining colony, more like a boom town than anything, and sucked every worthwhile rock out of the planetoid. Within a few years, it was bone dry. Tunnels were built upon tunnels that went so deep, the moon was now supported more by steel than rock. Hence the name, the Hollow.

It was similar to what, as Shepard recalled, Terra Nova had planned for the asteroid that Balak had almost killed them with. Except the Jackals who did the mining abandoned it. They weren't much for colonization apparently, they had more than their fair share of colonies in their home system. However, due to the moon being outside the general Covenant sphere of influence, as well as being within decent striking distance of several trade routes, it provided the perfect place for someone less reputable to set up shop. Pirates took the place over not long after the miners abandoned it. They created a safe place where they could trade stolen goods, resupply, fix their ships or just drink themselves into a stupor.

Shepard eyed the moon through the long range sensors on the _Ascendant Justice's_ bridge. He could plainly see the docking section that circled the equator, as well as several defensive weapons systems installed in several craters on the surface. It was an impressive set up, at least for what it was. According to Retz, no one really ran the place. There were people who were major players, Jackals who lived and worked there, but no one really was in charge. True to Jackal form, it was an Ochlocracy, mob-rule, just the way criminals liked it.

He still had reservations, lots of reservations. In normal circumstances he'd head down there himself or not go at all. Thing was, they didn't have many options. If he went down there, he'd be an open target and so would anyone else around him. It didn't matter if these Jackals didn't believe in the Covenant religion anymore than Zek did. They believed in credits and the head of the "False Shepherd" still held a substantial reward. He'd be spotted pretty quickly, as would any Spartan for similar reasons.

Garrus at least was able to go and Shepard knew he could trust him if things went sour. Chances were they would, but he tried to force that thought back. The second it became anything other than "if" was when he invited disaster. Of course, he wasn't the only one with reservations. Haverson, who was standing beside him, had a similar set of concerns.

"It's probably too late to back out of this I suppose," he grumbled as he glared at the monitors. "I don't like the idea of parking next to a viper's nest."

"Neither do I, but the risk nets us some pretty nifty rewards," Shepard reminded him. "And this time, no Marine has to put their lives on the line for Zek."

"Yes, which is good," Haverson admitted. "However that's only the case because they'd attract the kind of attention Zek doesn't want. That and relying on him and his band of crooks to get these supplies is a little off putting."

"My team is in constant contact," Shepard reassured him. "Garrus isn't going to let some shifty pirate slip by him if he can help it either. We'll know everything that's going on down there more less. It'll be like we're all ground side with them."

"It's not your team or Garrus I doubt, Shepard," Haverson replied. "It's Zek and Retz who concern me. Knowing your people are keeping an eye on them makes this bearable, but it doesn't completely soothe my nerves."

Shepard couldn't blame him, not after yesterday. He hoped that maybe, just maybe, this resupply operation would ease Haverson and Holland's anxieties. Or maybe Zek would do something to piss them off again. Given everything that had happened so far, that was a distinct possibility. Another thing that was made clear though was that he had to work both sides of this problem. Zek was consistently problematic, but Haverson was reasonable. Well, for an ONI agent at least.

"They're not that bad you know," he tried to argue. "They probably consider their own interests more important, but Zek is fighting the same enemy as you, whether he accepts it or not."

"The problem is I don't think he wants to fight the Covenant exactly," Haverson countered. "He's not interested in helping them, he probably likes the idea of attacking them when the mood strikes him. Fighting them is a different thing altogether. It's more than just being against something, you know that, every Marine does"

"Yeah, I do know," Shepard admitted, nodding slightly. "Still, I think it would help if you tried to work this arrangement from his shoes a bit, so to speak. His agenda doesn't have to clash with ours."

"It doesn't, but he still wants to take advantage of us regardless," Haverson stated, a cross look on his face. "I understand what you're hoping to accomplish here, Shepard. Hell, it's noble of you. But the UNSC isn't looking for fairweather friends here. If Zek keeps seeing this alliance as just another hustle, it's going nowhere. He's got to bring more to the table than he currently is."

Haverson looked away briefly, a thoughtful expression across his face.

"Tell me, Varvok is fighting the same enemy as us too," he noted. "Does he have your trust? Do you think he's reliable?"

Shepard didn't like the question, mostly because he didn't have a great answer to it. He decided to stick to his guns and be honest though. He wanted to get some of this out anyway.

"I'll admit, we're not friends and sometimes I want to sock him square across the jaw," he replied bluntly. "I see his side, but he's a stubborn bastard who won't see mine. I don't think he's committed the way I want him to be nor does he appreciate what's happening to Earth in this dimension. That all being said, I'm still trying to work with him, as difficult as he is being. Because if I don't at least try, I know for damn sure he won't."

Haverson gave a slight grin at that answer, finding it fairly agreeable.

"You certainly don't lack for determination, Commander," Haverson told him. "It's part of the reason Holland trusts you I suppose. For all our sakes, I hope it pays off."

"I'll keep my fingers crossed," Shepard declared.

They could see the _Fallen Serpent_ moving towards the moon on the monitor now. A small Phantom transport followed by it's side. Nothing they could do now, everything was in the ground team's hands.

"Just tell me one thing," Haverson requested. "Just so me and Holland can relax a little. You have a backup if things go south on this, right?"

"Don't worry," Shepard promised, a wide grin on his face. "I got something in the wings. Jackals aren't the only species that can be sneaky."

* * *

Getting onto the Hollow without anyone knowing was no easy task, especially when you were on a budget. It took a lot of creds to bribe the guy running the port to not log your entry. It wasn't hard to find a kig-yar willing to pretend you never arrived, that was a common racket on the docks. The hard part was finding a docking official who wouldn't leak info out to your potential enemies, suspecting a higher pay out if they did. That was just how this was played, if you were stupid enough to put your trust in another crook then you kinda deserved to get stabbed in the back for it. Word of Honor was for sangheili, it had no place among their people.

The one surefire way to not worry about that happening was to sneak in under the radar. If no one saw you come in, you wouldn't have to bribe anyone or rely on the promises of a stranger. This wasn't an option for large ships, but Taq's vessel was considerably smaller. She used the cover of an approaching pirate Battlecruiser as her way in. She coasted along her underbelly on low power, dodging the sensors. No one contacted her for ID, so she managed to slip. Once she pulled that off, she found a decent out of the way landing spot in a container yard. The perfect hiding spot. She locked the ship into defensive mode, just in case anyone tried to steal her. If things didn't work out so good here she'd need a way off the moon before she got found out.

She eventually found her way to the main dockyards, where ships came into port for resupply and repairs. Watchful of her surroundings, she made her way through the crowds to her destination. An old rusty shipping container, its side cut open to create a storefront. The sign over the entrance read "Fortune Finders Supplies", a decent place for the adventurous types to get gear and equipment. Also a decent spot to find similar minded folks intent on making a quick buck or two themselves. She'd need help on this caper if she wanted to pull it off. Way she saw it, plenty of credits for everyone if it paid off. Who could resist enough cash to set you straight for life?

Apparently, more people than she thought.

"No thanks," said the kig-yar browsing the mineral scanners "Not interested."

"I am talking about the golden nest here," Taq argued. "You could buy two whole planets with this, at least, and still have enough left over to build a mansion."

"Yet you're not offering up-front payment," the fellow artifact hunter responded.

"I don't have that kind of capital right now," she explained. "I promise you, it's a bigger payday than whatever measly scraps you're going to find in the Eayn system's asteroid belt."

The hunter picked out one of the scanners and gave it a look over.

"I am following a lead on a pirate stash from the pre-Covenant era," he explained. "You won't even tell me what it is you're looking for. Vague hints of a wreck aren't a good starting point for an investment."

"I can't share what it is in public," Taq insisted. "It's that big a deal. If you meet me at my ship later I can show you everything."

"Yeah, haven't heard that one before," the hunter laughed derisively. "Sorry, lady, but you're fifteen years too late. First date, thought we were going to mate in her shuttle. Knocked me out, stole a whole quarter of my blood for black market medical sale. Left Sweet Berry cookies at least. Sorta worth it back then. Now? With you? I ain't about to have my kidneys stolen. Hustle some other bird, I got treasure to find."

The skeptical hunter walked off as Taq fumed.

"Well my treasure is still cooler than yours, assbeak!" She shouted.

"Whatever, stick your head in unggoy shit, see if I care."

The hunter paid for his scanner and left the store. Taq growled in anger, that was the fourth stubborn male who laughed her off and insulted her. At least he wasn't as cruel as the two females who basically called her a shit liar to her face. She briefly considered just telling them that she was after something Forerunner, that would probably tickle their fancy. But she knew the second she said the big F-word half the damn moon would know before the end of the half rotation. That meant he would find out and that would mean she'd be dead.

Then again, who knew, the bastard would probably be scared off by it. None of these people seemed to have the spirit in them. No desire for adventure, thrill of the hunt. They only cared about getting rich quick, about sure things. They weren't in it for the risk, just the reward.

She decided to just pay for what she could find in the store. At least she'd have a few supplies to help her when she got to her destination. She'd try some other places, find someone desperate enough to want to come along. There had to be some wide-eyed daredevil out there somewhere.

That was when the proprietor rang her up and showed her the price for her gear. Her face sank at the numbers.

"You wouldn't happen to have a tab system in place would you?"

Ten seconds later, Taq was pushed out the store. To their credit, they didn't push her face into ground, but she did stumble forward a bit before she stopped. She turned and shook her fist at the store owner standing in the entrance way.

"Fine! It was all garbage anyway! Ya cheap price gouging serpent!"

The outburst didn't make her feel better for long. She was starting to realize her funds wouldn't get her very far. Not if she wanted quality equipment or a quality expeditionary team. She was putting her life at risk every second she stayed here and it was getting her nowhere. She couldn't give up though, not with a score this big waiting for her. She just needed to find the right people.

As she scanned the crowd, hoping to spot a sucker she could convince to join up with her, she eyed something coming in for a landing at one of the nearby docks. It was a big heavily modified Corvette, heavy guns, anti-air, the works. Pretty decked out for what it was. It looked like it had been through the ringer a bit. It was in decent condition, but a lot of the repairs were clearly patch works along the hull. That and there were still a few guns offline, smoking and sparking as they came into dock. They needed a massive overhaul.

That was when she noticed something painted along the side. A big, green, open-mouthed, snarling serpent, just plastered along the length of the ship. It stirred a memory in her, although she was sure she had never seen this painted snake before. It did feel familiar though, like it had been described to her in such vivid detail that it got imprinted on her mind's eye.

Then it hit her like a tidal wave coming at full speed for the shore.

"You got to be fucking with me?" She asked aloud. "Of all the places in the damn Galaxy. Of all the days!"

She stormed off towards the markets, in more of a rage than before. It wasn't the same kind of anger though, this was more an expectant long deserved rage. The perfect thing to get her mind off her setbacks of the past hour. This stop wouldn't be totally worthless after all.

* * *

The grunts hauling the crate out of the Phantom stumbled slightly as it touched the ground. The box tipped sharply and hit one of them in the toe. He dropped his end of the crate, causing it to hit the metal floor with a loud clang. As, the grunt held his foot in pain, Zek glared at the two in anger.

"Hey! Those Carbine rifles are worth sixty of you shits each!" He screeched. "Don't fuck up my merchandise, idiots! I need them in mint, we don't get full credits for dented and scratched hardware."

"We sorry," said the cowering injured grunt. "It not happen again."

"Just don't fuck up with the plasma grenades when you take them out," Zek cautioned harshly. "Last thing I need is you little gas sucking imbeciles blowing up my transport. Honestly, how hard is it to put a fucking box on a hover cart?"

The grunts got back to work, lugging the large crate onto one of the hover carts and quickly moving to get the next one. Zek groaned, shaking his head in frustration. All the while, Garrus loomed over him frowning.

"Would it really kill you to be nicer to them?" He asked. "They are helping you after all."

"Only because I need most of my men at the ship working on repairs and resupply," Zek reminded him. "I'd rather not use them at all. They're incompetent idiots, if you don't stress the importance of anything they eventually fuck it all up."

"Or you could just not treat them like they're dirt, maybe?" Garrus suggested.

"It's a step up from less than dirt," Zek countered sardonically. "Now are we going to keep arguing ethics over how to treat the hired help, who I'm forced to pay with food and lodging, or are we going to get to business already?"

The grunts finished loading the crates on the hover carts and moved them out after the group, Retz calling them to keep pace with everyone as they walked towards the Markets. Businesses of every kind were all over the Hollow, but the Markets was where you could find the highest concentration of vendors. With that came variety as well as a highly competitive atmosphere that meant a lot of leg room to make deals in. It was a good place to start off any shopping spree on the moon.

There were stalls, full-fledged stores and roving merchants on every corner stretching deep into the artifical cavern. They worked out of former barracks for miners, hastily put together storefronts or re-purposed shipping containers. Some shops were even old broken down ships, like a Phantom transport for example. Anything and everything that gave you a space to sell your wares was allowed. So long as you could compete, you could stay.

"Sangheili helmets," shouted one vendor. "Twenty percent off regular asking price! Modified for the cunning kig-yar mind! Look like a big shot! You deserve it more than those honor obsessed dullards anyways!"

"You want gun mods? We got gun mods!" Screamed another shop owner as he waved his arms about. "Custom jobs accepted! Heavily modified! Bigger battery means more kills! Buy two plasma pistols today and you get a free weapon paint job!"

"Fresh fruit! Straight from the homeworld!" A passing merchant announced. "Bird can not live off stew alone! Spice up your meals for your crew! Fresh Fruit!"

Zek inhaled deeply, taking in the surroundings.

"It's good to be among my fellow lowlifes again," he declared, turning gleefully to his compatriots. "Look around friends, true enterprise at work, take it all in. No rules, no restrictions, commerce unfettered by the regulations of some long-necked zealot. Is it not wonderful?"

Grunt sniffed the air in relative disgust.

"This whole place smells like bile and treachery," he growled. "I half expect a vorcha to jump up any second."

"That's just the musk, comes from the restaurant quarter a level below," Retz assured. "You'll get used to it."

"Who cares what it smells like anyway," Zek said dismissively. "This is pirate country, this is home! It's wonderful!"

Zek spun about as he walked, grinning widely at his surroundings as they navigated the crowded corridor. Garrus almost feared he'd break out into song, thankfully it didn't get that far.

"It's nice to see you enjoying your homecoming, Zek," Varvok told the pirate sincerely. "But let's keep focused. Do you have an idea on where we should start looking for supplies?"

"It's been years, Four-Eyes," Zek reminded him. "Give me a chance to settle in and get a feel for the place again. Everything has no doubt changed a bit since I was last here. Shops and vendors move around all the time in here, vying for the best spot to sell. Or they get their storefront blown up by rivals, that's fairly common business tactic too."

"It say a lot about your race that you call acts of arson common business tactics," Garrus said, crossing his arms.

Zek just shrugged at the turian's remark.

"Hey, if you don't want to pay for protection or get a decent insurance policy that's your lack of foresight," he said plainly. "The market is free and open, you have to do what you can to stay alive. It's all just business, nothing personal."

"I don't think the people who die as a consequence of that see it the same way," Garrus responded derisively.

"Well they're dead, so their opinion doesn't really matter in grand scheme of things," Zek argued, chuckling slightly as he did.

As they passed by one storefront, one Jackal was suddenly stopped by two others as he tried to leave. They pulled him over and began taking out bottles of ichor they found hidden on his person.

"Oh my, how did those get there?" The Jackal asked nervously. "I'm sure there is a receipt around here some-"

The two other Jackals pushed him over onto his back and began kicking and beating him. The store's owner took back his stolen ichor, which had been placed to the side and began putting it back on the shelves. Zek coughed loudly to regain the attention of those watching the sordid scene.

"Just keep walking," he told them. "Best not look at that or get involved."

"Because they're beating a man for simple shoplifting?" Garrus asked in a disapproving tone.

"No, because he got caught doing it," Retz corrected him. "Honestly, it's amateurish, small time. If you can't even heist some ichor, you have no business stealing anything. If he had gotten out of the store without them knowing, they would've at least respected him for pulling it off."

"So, if he had actually gotten away with it they would be praising him?" Varvok asked curiously.

"I didn't say that," Retz clarified. "I said they'd respect him. They'll toss him out into a ditch later for that blunder. If he had pulled it off and they caught up with him later, they'd at least call for a doctor or something."

Garrus suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder from Legion. The geth pointed towards a smaller Jackal stealing something from the pouch of another. He then quickly scampered away and handed it off to another Jackal wearing a tattered hood and dark armor. The adult patted the little child on the head and gave him some sort of fruit to eat before ushering him off.

"Hmm, best mind our pockets I suppose," Garrus murmured.

"Smartest thing you've said so far, Mr. Vakarian," Zek said grinning. "Why do you think I agreed to have your giant lizard come along? Or have Varvok's men escorting the hover carts with our stuff? You're either the victim or the hustler here, there is no middle ground. Your fault if you become the former."

"Such a society is erratic and unstable," Legion observed. "Data suggests lack of laws or regulations to safeguard the individuals within it is inherently flawed. It is subject to internal conflict and eventual decay. Without any true code of ethics or morals, the system will inevitably break down as individuals exploit and extinguish others to obtain personal gain. These facts make this social and economic landscape unsustainable. Not in any viable capacity."

"Hey, there is a code, okay," Zek argued. "We have laws... of a sort. It's just that we don't let that get in the way of business. If everyone started complaining about how unfair their lot was, nothing would get done. Trade caps, inspections, fines, fees, they all just muddle up the whole process. If we have disputes or accounts to settle, we usually just do it ourselves. It's faster, more efficient, keeps things running."

"And apparently it creates a society of pirates where almost everything and anything goes," Garrus chimed in again. "That's not something that's making me feel all that positive about our mission here."

Zek turned about, still walking as he spoke confidently.

"Relax," he said smiling. "You got me here. I got a reputation around these parts. By now, a few of them know I'm back in the game. They're not going to try and swindle us or cheat us, promise. Retz knows people, he's got this all figured out. Don't you Retz?"

"It's my job to have everything figured out," Retz replied, sharing Zek's grin. "My contacts sent me a list of potential prospects to check out while we're here. They should fill our quotas nicely."

"What kind of contacts?" Garrus asked suspiciously.

"People who owe me favors," Retz explained plainly. "Old friends, former business partners me and Zek had long ago. If you're going to object to them being criminals, you're already friends with a few of those yourself as I understand it. Not much of a high perch to sit on there."

"I'm just trying to be sure they're reliable," Garrus explained. "Forgive me if I have concerns over resupplying in a lawless pirate lair, especially considering what I've seen so far."

Zek laughed slightly once more.

"It's hardly lawless, I told you we have a code," Zek explained happily. "We abide by certain understandings. For example, you make a deal, you abide by it until a contract is breached. Also, you accept the fundamental fact that others have needs and it is in your best interests to fill those needs if possible. So long as everyone gets something in return, everything is fair. Sure, it has it's bumps, but so long as you can navigate the system, you are a respected and admired pirate. And I am very well respected, well admired and well loved pirate. So long as you guys stick with me, the Hollow will treat you just fine."

Zek turned around and instantly spotted a vendor nearby, a smile grew on his face and he rushed over to the owner fill the racks with fruit pastries.

"Fidz!" Zek said throwing his arms open. "How great it is to see you again, old boy! It's me! Zek! I'm back! Remember me?"

The Jackal at the stall took one look at Zek, a deadpan expression plastered on his face. He then took one of his fruit pastries in a rather nonchalant manner and smashed it in the pirate's face. Zek looked a bit surprised as the vendor looked at him with a scowl.

"I do remember," he grumbled. "I honestly wish I could forget. You're lucky I gave my security an hour off. Leave or the next thing in your face is my fist."

Zek backed off slowly heading back to the group and wiping the pastry off his face.

"Well loved, huh?" Garrus asked sardonically.

"That was an overreaction," he claimed. "What happened was a complete misunderstanding and I certainly did not stiff him with any sort of bill or sold him bad ichor."

"Uh huh," Garrus said, not at all convinced by the defense.

At that moment, a Jackal in ratty clothing with unkempt quills on his head rushed up to them. In his little disgusting claws were clutched several data disks, along with several more in a small satchel he kept close to him. His eyes started darting around to each of the members of the group, their bloodshot gaze frantically searching them.

"Hey there folks," he said in a hushed erratic whisper, his eyes still roving around crazily. "You want some prime material? I got what you needs. Banned in every sector of Covenant space. Sangheili females on Jiralhanae. Pictures of the hottest females of the matriarchy on Eayn. Shit, I even got unggoy with animals if you're into that."

Legion's eye closed slightly at the sight of the peddler.

"Scans detect high levels of toxicity in this merchant's bloodstream," the geth observed plainly. "Inflamed nostrils and frantic speech also add credence to our consensus of potential substance abuse, possibly of one or more narcotics. We advise caution given merchant's erratic behavior."

"What?" The peddler asked nervously, sounding confused at the machine's analysis. "What you talking about synth? I don't do that. I don't even know where I'd get it. Certainly don't got nothing like that on me. I mean, not less you're interested of course."

Grunt let out an annoyed snort at the peddler.

"Can I please squash this degenerate, Garrus?" He asked growling.

"No," the turian replied bluntly. "And before you say it, Shepard wouldn't let you do it either."

Grunt crossed his arms in a mixture of anger and disappointment. Meanwhile, Varvok took over the situation.

"We don't want anything you have," the batarian informed the peddler with a furious scowl. "We have more important things to attend to. Go bother someone else, you filthy little smut merchant."

"That's harsh, man," the peddler cried. "I just need some creds. How about this, we go into that back alley and I'll-"

Before he could finish, the peddler spotted Zek. That was when his whole tune changed and his quivering turned from an indication of nervousness to one of disgust.

"You?" He shouted. "You!"

"Uh, me, yes," Zek said, partially confused.

"You're the bastard who sold me that drive full of fucking human stuff!" He screeched. "Naked humans! In all sorts of positions!"

Varvok and Garrus looked to Zek with curious stares. The pirate just sighed, suddenly remembering what this crazy jackal was talking about it.

"You find all sorts of things in the aftermath of a Covenant and UNSC firefight, okay?" He tried to explain. "Apparently, some poor human wanted to remind himself a little of home. You judge me, you judge him. I mean he gave his life for Earth and stuff, can we really be mad at him for what he did in his off time?"

"I can be mad at you!" The peddler screeched. "You fucking bastard! You have no idea what you fucking did to me!"

"Oh please, like I'm gonna stand here and get lectured by a guy who sells porn for a living," Zek grumbled. "It's not like any of your other products are legal."

"Possession of depictions of human sex acts carries the worst penalties!" The peddler shrieked "When that fucking Sangheili Major discovered it in my wares, he sicked his men on me! Didn't even pay me for the stuff I actually got for him! I got chased out of seven sectors, lost all my best buyers! I had to fake my death by blowing up my only ship! You ruined my life!"

"It wasn't much of one in the first place if we're being honest," Zek said disparagingly, chortling slightly as he did .

The peddler cringed in anger at Zek's lack of empathy. With reckless and furious abandon, he kicked Zek in the crotch and then followed that up with another kick in the knee. As Zek knelt to the floor, the peddler ran screaming into the crowd, shouting "Revenge! Sweet Revenge!" as he cackled with glee. Zek eventually got back to his feet, clutching at his nethers for awhile as he did.

"Okay, I will concede that was probably deserved," he relented. "But honestly, I really think he's more at fault here than me."

"Considering everything that he blames you for, you kind of got off easy," Garrus told him rather bluntly.

"Oh shut up," Zek said grumbling. "So a few people don't like how their bargains went. Big flippin whoop. If they were smarter they wouldn't have been in those situations. Who doesn't check their merchandise after receiving it? I did everything by the code, they're just sore losers because they couldn't play the game. End of story. Now, we have business to do, so let's get going already."

Zek turned back around and started walking forward when something got in his way. Standing directly in front of him was another Jackal, this one more slender and feminine looking, with purple and blue quills on her head. She was scowling at him with fiery eyes. Zek, however, was looking at her in disbelief.

"Taq?" He asked, his voice forlorn and distant.

And then, without warning, the female Jackal punched Zek square in the jaw. The pirate went down and the female looked over to Retz.

"Retz," she greeted pleasantly. "Nice to see you again. How are things?"

"More or less decent, can't complain," He replied plainly. "How about you? Things going well?"

"My day got slightly better just now, thanks for asking" she replied happily.

Zek groaned as he pulled himself up off the ground.

"I'm guessing you didn't deserve that one either," Varvok noted.

"No, no that one I did deserve," he admitted honestly.

"Just be grateful I refrained from busting your beak open and gouging out an eye," Taq said venomously. "Ocean knows I dreamed about it enough."

"Come on, that's a little severe isn't it?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I understand why you're upset and all but-"

"You ditched me, you ass!" Taq shouted at him in a rage. "You ditched me, took half my share and left me without a ride off planet! Not to mention the bill for our entire stay at the resort!"

"Okay, that is not accurate at all," Zek declared defensively. "It wasn't the entire stay, I paid for about half. Also I left you that discount certificate for a free meal at the buffet."

Taq grabbed him by the collar and pushed his head towards her.

"A few extra fruit pastries doesn't make up for having to spend the voyage to the Hollow in a fucking cargo hold and then needing to do odd tomb jobs for years just to payoff the loan on my ship!" She screeched at him. She then started shaking him violently. "You know how many friggin Jiralhanae burial mounds I had to sort through just to make the first payment? It took months just to get the stink of dead primate fur off me! I am WAY past upset at this point!"

Taq released Zek and let him drop to the floor again. Her face looked to the rest of the group, her scowl still ever present. Her gaze fell upon Garrus and Grunt especially.

"Only reason people keep their helmets on in the Hollow is when they got something to hide," she noted, looking at Garrus in particular "What's your deal? You an uglier than usual sangheili or something new?"

"Not sure if I'm willing to share that information with a stranger, Ms..."

"Taq," she replied proudly. "Treasure hunter, grave robber, archaeologist if you prefer a more legal sounding profession. Who's your big friend behind you? An oversized unggoy?"

Grunt moved up slightly beside Garrus and growled loudly. The turian sighed, Grunt hated that he shared a name with the grunts, who he considered cowardly and useless. Being compared to them in any capacity irked him.

"I am krogan," he stated through gritted teeth.

"Good for you," Taq replied in condescending tone, steadfast in the presence of the massive creature looming over her.

Legion caught her attention next, her curiosity piqued at this point.

"You stolen human tech, synth?" She asked suspiciously. "I know they're big on AIs."

"We are Geth and we are not stolen. We have chosen to be here," Legion responded plainly. "This platform's accepted designation is Legion."

"Cute, it has a name," Taq said rolling her eyes before turning to Varvok. "And who are you?"

"Lieutenant Commander Varvok," he replied. "Formerly of the Hegemony Military. I am an associate of Zek's."

Taq didn't seem all that interested in getting more information, in fact she appeared to be as aloof as when she arrived. She turned to Zek who was getting back up off the floor once more.

"This your new crew?" She asked. "Seems a bit mismatched for your tastes."

"They're not exactly my crew," Zek clarified nervously. "More like business partners. You know, like... we were."

Taq gave a knowing disdainful nod and turned back to the group at large.

"If any of you have any sense you'll drop this sorry excuse for a pirate faster than a charging razorfin on a pod of chorka," she told them with a mock smile on her face. "Whatever he's promising is either going to backfire or he'll decide to cut his losses and run like a fucking sleeze."

"Alright," Zek shouted. "I get it, I really do. Would it help if I said I was sorry? Like really sorry?"

"The time for that passed you by a long time ago," Taq told him, poking him in the chest. "I don't want an apology. I just wanted you to know that I survived your bullshit. That and today has been a bit disappointing so far and hitting your dumb smug face in was really rewarding."

Taq turned to Retz one last time and gave a genuine smile for once.

"It was good to see you again, Retz," she said pleasantly. "Sorry it wasn't under better circumstances."

"Technically I expected worse if we ever ran into you again," Retz explained. "Like you'd try to shoot us or strangle Zek or whatever. So really this is better than expected. Take care of yourself."

"You too," Taq grinned.

She glared one last time Zek and pushed her way past him, moving back into the crowd. Zek called after her, trying to get her attention, but she just kept walking. Eventually he sighed forlornly.

"Damn it," he growled. "That did not go the way it did in my head."

"I kept warning you it wouldn't," Retz reminded him. "Seriously, did you honestly expect her to just take you back? You did kind of screw her over."

"I said I was sorry," Zek insisted. "Hell, I said it in the note I left!"

"Yes, that's makes ditching her and taking some of her money totally forgivable," Retz said sarcastically.

Garrus cleared his throat, getting the two Jackals' attention.

"Mind letting us in the loop here?" Garrus asked.

"Wouldn't mind getting answers myself," Varvok added. "Who was that?"

Zek sighed, but Retz remained on point.

"Taq was a former business partner of ours," he explained. "She has a curious interest among kig-yar, mainly ancient artifacts of a certain long gone race of ring builders if you catch my meaning. She helped us find a few really big finds that set us up early in our pirating career. Zek and her grew intimate, if you will. And then, as he you all heard, he fucked it up."

"I didn't fuck it up that much," Zek tried to counter, however weakly.

"Sounded like you fucked it up to me."

Garrus recognized the voice and slowly turned his eyes to where it originated. There was a small vendor stall that was currently not occupied. He walked over to it and leaned over the side, a grimace on her face.

"Kasumi, seriously?" He said in frustration. "Shepard gave explicit orders."

The thief turned off her cloak, but kept herself hidden behind the stall as the others crowded around.

"Yes, he did," she admitted. "But to be honest, I really wanted to see a space pirate city. Besides, I'm probably the only human on board that can actually be here, being able to cloak and all."

"That is hardly the point," Garrus grumbled at her. "How did you even get here?"

"I snuck aboard the phantom and hid in the upper cargo compartment," she informed, in a tone that suggested the answer should've been obvious. "I've been following for a while from the support rafters. Got to see Zek get chewed out by his Ex from the best seats in the house."

"I did not get chewed out," Zek insisted. "She's just working through some issues and taking them out on me, that's all."

"Sure thing, Casanova, whatever you say," Kasumi chuckled.

While Zek tried to figure out what she meant by that, Garrus returned the conversation to the real concerns that did not involve the pirate's love life.

"If anyone sees you, you're going to have a big target on your back," Garrus warned. "It might put all of us at risk."

"But they won't see me, because I'm me," she argued in kind, smiling as she did. "I once snuck through a party full of the most dangerous cutthroats in the galaxy and not one noticed me."

"According to mission logs, the ceremony's host did notice you," Legion corrected.

Kasumi frowned slightly.

"I don't like it when you try to be funny, Legion," she said grimacing.

"We were not being funny, we were correcting an error in your statement," the geth assured.

Kasumi brushed the comment off handily, returning her attention to Garrus.

"He only noticed me at the door when I was uncloaked, not while I was inside," she clarified. "Besides, I've managed to sneak through way bigger crowds than this. And you could always use extra eyes in a place full of scary interstellar buccaneers."

Garrus continued looking at her with a serious sense of disdain. Kasumi just pouted innocently in return.

"Would be more work just to send her back now," Varvok noted, equally annoyed.

"I think Ms. Goto can more than handle herself," Retz added. "Who knows, we could probably use an expert thief while we're here."

At last the turian just sighed at the whole thing.

"Fine, but if Shepard finds out about this, it was all your idea, Kas," Garrus warned.

"No problem," she assured him. "You won't even know I'm here. Well, you'll know I'm here, but everyone else won't. Don't worry, I'll stay close."

Kasumi turned her cloak back on, before adding;

"You might want to move away before people start wondering why you're all talking to an empty storefront."

The group pulled back and tried to act normal.

"Alright, enough wasting time," Varvok stated firmly. "Let's get our supplies and get moving already. We have a big list to fill and I'd rather not stay here longer than we have to."

"Well that's something we can agree on at least," Garrus noted.

"You guys go ahead," Zek told them. "There's something I gotta do first."

Retz turned to his friend, a questioning look on his face.

"Zek, your meeting with the Old Man isn't for a while," he observed.

"I'm just going to check out some stalls is all, get something for myself," Zek insisted, rubbing his hands together.

Retz shook his head and sighed.

"Zek, the woman isn't interested," he informed him. "It's been way too long and you should've done this way earlier. Right now is not the time to be chasing old flames."

"I just need a few minutes," Zek assured him. "You can handle this stuff without me. You're the logistics guy, you got this figured out already. I'll see you in a bit."

Zek took off before Retz could stop him. The Jackal rubbed his feathers and groaned slightly as his friend and shipmaster vanished into the crowd.

"One time, just one time, I'd like him to listen," he grumbled. "It would be nice, ya know?"

"This isn't one of those best friend things, is it?" Garrus asked curiously. "You know, where the girl gets in between them and it ruins their relationship and they drift apart? Because I have enough headaches today without worrying about some dumb soap opera breaking out here."

Retz just laughed aloud.

"Please, I actually like Taq," Retz insisted. "I encouraged the relationship. It was a good business arrangement and she made Zek happy. It was a very profitable time for us."

"So why did he dump her like he did?" Varvok asked in kind.

"Honestly? No idea," Retz sadly admitted. "I thought everything was going great and then suddenly he shows up back on the ship without her. What I do know, is that next to surrendering ourselves to Covenant contract, leaving Taq became one of his greatest regrets. Right now though, we have to let him work through this on his own. Like you keep saying, we have a lot to do today, Zek included. He'll catch up with us later at the _Serpent_. Come on, our first stop is just down the way from here."

The group continued walking, deeper and deeper into the Hollow. Garrus was suddenly a lot more mindful as they moved through the crowd. He had only been on this moon for a few minutes and already he hated it more than Omega. Zek had run off to chase his ex, they were in the middle of a bunch of violent crooks and conniving thieves, and every step they made got him feeling more uneasy by the second. As he kept his ears open for trouble, he felt he could hear Kasumi somewhere nearby, humming to herself some kind of song in a low whisper.

"What do we do with a drunken sailor, what do we do with a drunken sailor..."

* * *

Taq did her best to collect her thoughts as she sat on the balcony of the diner. She liked this spot, it had a decent view of the old fire pits. The new residents had converted it into a decent little light show, as the flames blasted out of the incinerators in a rainbow of colors. Contrary to what some claimed, kig-yar did have an appreciation for art. Mostly when they knew it attracted potential customers who liked buying or looking at it.

For Taq, the multi-colored fire was just what she needed to get her mind back in the right place. She needed to find some people who would be willing to take a little risk. Perhaps she should try some of the local dives, she thought. There were always plenty of down on their luck drunkards willing to sell themselves into service if it meant the chance for some quick cash. Hell, they'd probably go if she offered them some ichor.

As she kept pondering however, someone took a seat across from her table. She didn't bother to look up, she knew who it was and it was exactly what she didn't need. She probably should've suspected this would used to be their favorite spot after all. She took some of her fruit juice in hand and kept watching the flames, hoping he'd go away.

"Look, I know you're still mad at me and all, but you could at least look at me," Zek pleaded.

"I got nothing left to say," she told him plainly. "I also have more important things to worry about than you right now."

"Well the way I see it, you went out of your way to come over and punch me," he observed smugly. "So I'm figuring you just might have a little extra time to at least hear me out."

Taq finally turned and looked at him, still scowling as she did. He was wearing that stupid pathetic smile of his he used when he tried to look charming. Imbecile, if he wanted to talk, fine! She supposed she had brought this on herself a bit. If she didn't want him to bother her, she wouldn't have wasted time socking him in the beak. Still worth it though, even if she had to suffer him for a bit longer.

"Do you honestly think there's anything you can say that will make me give a shit?" She asked fuming.

"Remember when we started out," he began. "You had a map to some old ruins, you needed a ship and some strongmen to help you get there and grab your booty."

"I remember you bitching constantly about the desert heat," Taq growled. "And when you got pissy about how much sand was getting caught in your armor crevices."

"Oh now you're just focusing on the negatives," Zek grumbled. "Plus that sand itched like a mother fucker. Listen, after that haul we made a promise, that no matter what we'd stay professional."

Taq almost wanted to laugh. Zek's promises were always garbage, she learned that the hard way several times. His beak claimed more than he himself was capable of producing and said things that he always ended up back-pedaling on eventually.

"And how did that go?" She asked, knowing the answer already. "You kept giving me gifts. You took me out to every fancy getaway in the galaxy. You cleared the bridge one night just to dance with me!"

"Yeah, good times huh?" Zek said wistfully.

He was not picking up on her frustrated tone.

"You made me feel special! You made me feel wanted!" She shouted at him. "And when I finally decide to let you in, to release us from that promise YOU insisted upon in the first place mind you, what did you do? You bolted! You left me with practically nothing and a stupid note saying 'Sorry, hun, I'm not sure about this. Need some time to think. Catch ya later.' You didn't even have the guts to do it face to face! You just abandoned me!"

"It was a mistake, okay," Zek tried to explain. "I got scared. I was younger back then and I wasn't sure what-"

"You seemed pretty sure beforehand," Taq reminded him. "But what changed between then and the bedroom I wonder?"

Taq glared at him for a good minute or so. Zek tried to say something once or twice, but all that came out was air and defeated sighs. Taq shook her head, predictable.

"You used me, simple as that," she growled. "If you don't get why that hurts, then you're as hopeless as ever."

"But I do get it!" Zek insisted. "My deadbeat dad did the same thing to my mom! Bedded and left her to raise me alone! That's why I used protection that night, it could've been a lot worse is all I'm saying."

"Oh yay, I didn't end up taking care of an extra beak, thanks for that," Taq said with heavy dripping sarcasm. "The Jeppa fruit doesn't fall far from the tree in your family, but at least you're smart enough to use protection! Bravo!"

Zek lowered his head sadly, scratching at his quills frantically as he did.

"Come on, what do you want me to say here?" He asked pleadingly. "I'm trying to make this right."

"There's nothing you can say, that's the whole point," Taq informed him. "And you're not trying to make this right, you're trying to give a justifiable excuse so I'll forgive you and you can stop feeling guilty."

"It's not like that," he tried to reassure her. "You don't understand, I've been through a shit ton of stuff since last we met. Like a real shit ton."

"So I heard, captured by the Covenant," Taq huffed rather bored at this point. "I'm guessing that stint is done."

"I found myself again, Taq," he explained beaming. "I lost my way, lost who I was, but now I'm back. I got a chance to redo everything, from the ground up. Its like a fresh new slate for me. Can't we have the same thing?"

He reached out to grab her hand, but she quickly pulled it away from him. He stared back, looking dejected.

"You haven't changed, Zek," she declared. "You'll never change. That's just who you are. And I told you, I don't need you anymore. Hell, if things go right today, I won't need anyone. So why the fuck would I want to get on the ground floor of Zek Enterprises again knowing where it ultimately leads? Especially when I'm about to make it big for myself without him."

Zek perched a brow curiously at her when she finished. She knew what was coming next, he couldn't resist probing questions. She remembered how often he pestered her for explanations about symbols and temples and how the cool light bridges worked. Well whatever, she earned a chance to gloat to someone, might as well be this idiot.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. "What score are you onto now?"

"The motherload," Taq answered, grinning sinisterly. "The biggest potential payday of my entire life."

She carefully reached inside her satchel and held up the small little pyramid in her claws. Zek moved to get a closer look, but Taq pulled it away. She wasn't risking him stealing this from her too.

"That's going to net you some serious credits?" He asked disbelieving. "Doesn't seem like much."

"You never appreciated the craft as much as I did," she stated with scowl. "That's why you needed me from the start. I've told you time and again, the greatest treasures are always the most unassuming. They wouldn't be well hidden otherwise. This is one of the Covie's holy deities' star charts. All wrapped up in a very convenient to carry package."

"We found plenty of those before," Zek said, still confused apparently. "What makes this one so special?"

"Because it has coordinates to a wreck," she informed him smugly. "One of their wrecks. And if what this thing says about it's manifest is correct, then it's the break I've been looking for. I came to the Hollow to get a crew together for it, people to help me get the score of a lifetime."

All at once, Zek's eyes lit up and she knew what he was about to say.

"Well, if you need a crew I got my ship and-"

"What part of 'I don't need you' did you not understand?" Taq asked resentfully.

"It just sounds like you need some help," Zek explained. "I'm offering. Come on, it can be just like old times."

"It can never be like that again, Zek," she told him, standing up from her seat. "I know you better now. I'm not going down that road again, ever."

Zek looked up at her, anger finally returning to his despondent eyes.

"Well then why tell me all this?" Zek asked.

"So you'll know that I'm getting on without you," Taq reiterated once again. "That despite your efforts to tear me down, I'm climbing back up."

"It was never about that, Taq," Zek insisted once more. "I wasn't trying to hurt you. How many times can I say that? I made a mistake, didn't take a chance on something good. I realize that now."

"Too little too late," Taq informed him. "Just because you get your second chance at pirate glory, doesn't mean you get one with me. That's just life, Zek, deal with it."

She shoved the pyramid back in her satchel and started to leave. She looked back one last time to see a dejected Zek looking over at her. She knew he'd say something, probably some desperate plea or what, maybe sing some really terrible sea shanty. Instead, his face remained a contorted defeated expression as he called out to her one last time.

"Was it really all bad?" He pleadingly asked, perhaps in the most sincere tone he ever had spoke to her in.

Perhaps he was faking it, she had been sure he was being honest before and that turned out terrible. Then again, he looked so pathetic right then and there. Fine, she thought, throw him a bone, maybe it will shut him up.

"For a few hours it wasn't so bad," she admitted grimly. "It was a special wonderful night. Almost like a dream. Then I woke the next morning and you found you had killed it."

Zek looked away, staring into the fire pits. Perhaps he was think about one of the times they ate here, back when they were younger, when she was less careful, more naive. With a sigh, she offered one last peace offering.

"I wish you luck with the _Fallen Serpent_ ," she told him, doing her best to bury her distaste. "If nothing else, you're free now, Zek. I guess that's what you always wanted from the start. Congrats on that."

She walked away and did not look back. She wondered if he'd chase after her again. She hoped he wouldn't, she was tired of dealing with her past for today. She had to get back to her real concern, her future. She couldn't let anything hold her back.

* * *

Garrus never pictured one of his missions aboard the _Normandy_ would involve grocery shopping, but given the circumstances it was a lot safer to send him instead of another crewmember. Besides, he wanted to see if anyone here sold dextro-based food items. He and Tali needed to eat too after all. Thankfully selling those crates of rifles and grenades had given them a sizable shopping budget. Retz himself was kind enough to give a list of suggested foods that humans could reasonably eat. Hopefully none of it was like those sandwiches from earlier in the day.

Helping in this endeavor was Legion, who's organic sample scans were more than sufficient to locate food edible for all species. There was a surprising selection of food stuffs to be sure, not all of it from Jackal space thankfully. With any luck, maybe Gardner could make something halfway decent out of it all. Right now, they'd settle for edible. It caused a little confusion for some of the vendors though.

"Makka Fruit isn't exactly good for you, sir," he said. "It just smells nice. You get sick when you eat it."

"That's because it has a different DNA compensation," Garrus explained.

"What?" The vendor said, now even more confused.

Garrus just sighed.

"Look, I don't have time to explain the science," he said in a bored tone. "You want our credits or not?"

"I don't particularly care what you do with it," the vendor told him. "Just letting you know about the danger so you don't try and get a refund later. We don't do that, especially not for that shit."

"Yes, I know," Garrus grumbled in annoyance. "You and everyone selling things here has made their feelings on refunds very clear to me at every opportunity."

He transferred the credits and the vendor whistled over to two grunts he had working for him. They started loading up the dextro-based fruit crate by crate. Garrus turned to Varvok and Legion, happy to be done with another item on their list.

"That should do it for Dextro-food," he noted. "I guess we lucked out a little. No one can eat the stuff so we're getting it all for a steal."

"Yes, you and the quarian's bizarre genetics aren't going to cost us too much thankfully," Varvok grumbled. "Just be grateful that so many vendors were overstocked with produce they couldn't sell otherwise."

Garrus did his best not to react. Varvok had held his tongue surprisingly well so far on this trip, so he was affording the batarian a few slides when he let his filter drop. Besides, he didn't really have time to get pissy with him. They still had a lot of unchecked things on the supply list to gather.

"We shall begin new scans for potential human species consumables," Legion said. "As well as medical supplies. We will report back with results."

Legion moved down towards the next crop of storefronts, Garrus and Varvok keeping pace with the geth as they walked. They didn't want to risk their synthetic friend getting too far ahead of them. Some curious Jackal might decide he was worth something. Garrus could still sense Varvok's uneasy tension as they followed Legion. Not wanting this mission to be more awkward then it had to be, he tried to ease things over.

"Is there anything specific you think your men could need while we're here?" He asked. "You probably need more rations than most of the fleet."

"I can determine what my people need better than you," the batarian assured, pride in both his step and voice. "That has been my job since I took command, after all."

Garrus shrugged, at least he tried. Shepard would've wanted that at least. He did not expect though for Varvok to suddenly lead the conversation in a different direction a few moments later.

"This whole situation is almost absurd to be honest," he declared rather suddenly. "I'm in a pirate lair, on a food run of all things, being led around by a turian and some damn synthetic. My father would probably be screaming bloody murder if he knew what I was doing right now. Lucky me, Balak has probably told my parents I'm dead by now, at least I hope he has."

"Where's this coming from all of a sudden?" Garrus asked curiously.

"From the accumulation of everything, being betrayed, being stuck working for an enemy I swore to destroy," he answered diligently. "The fact everything I once believed in has blown up in my face. The fact I'm probably the last hope the batarian people have of escaping Covenant assimilation. That's where this is coming from, not that you or Shepard care."

Garrus supposed this was going to come up sooner or later. Given what had happened yesterday, Varvok was bound to start venting to anyone who cared to hear. Him being the closest member of the _Normandy_ crew nearby just made him the unfortunate recipient.

"Despite what you think, Shepard does care," he told the batarian, vehemently defending his friend. "I don't think he wants the batarians to be overtaken by the Covenant anymore than you do. You'd see that if you bothered to try instead of holding onto whatever chip is on your shoulder."

"Of course you'd say that, you didn't have to suffer the indignity my people have for decades," Varvok argued. "Humans weren't blocking your expansion. The Council wasn't using them as a buffer against your people."

"Hate to break it to you, Varvok, but your people never played nice to begin with," Garrus reminded him. "Maybe if your original forays into space hadn't been so aggressive, the Council might have heard your people out. You can't blame it all on the humans."

"So I have been told many times," Varvok huffed dismissively. "I suppose next you'll lecture me on why slavery is wrong, that's usually how this goes."

"I'm not much for lecturing," Garrus admitted. "Besides, I'm getting the feeling it would be like arguing with a brick wall at this point. Just try to understand, humans aren't nearly as bad as your government made them out to be. It wouldn't hurt to respect them."

"I do respect them, as adversaries," Varvok firmly corrected. "I respect Shepard for his ability to lead and command. I don't respect what he represents, I made that clear the night I came to you people for help."

Yes, Garrus remembered, the alliance sealed in a packed corridor on an infested Covie ship. He also remembered Shepard being quite reasonable, but apparently that wasn't enough to sway Varvok's opinion on humans as a whole. He wasn't sure why he was so stubborn, all he knew was that it wouldn't help him in the long if he kept it up. No plates off his back though, if the batarian valued his pride more than his cause it was his own damn fault.

"Just remember, it was humans who basically helped save you and your men's lives," he told Varvok sternly. "Meanwhile, your fellow batarians back home traded you away for guns. That's something to chew on in my opinion."

Varvok stopped momentarily, glaring at the back of Garrus' head. The turian turned around when he noticed and leaned partially against a stall. There was a question brewing in the batarian's mind, he could tell.

"Why are you so quick to defend them?" He asked suspiciously. "You of all aliens, I mean."

"Because I'm turian?" Garrus asked, almost bored by the question.

"Because you fought them," Varvok said approaching with his finger outstretched. "You bombed one of their major colonies to near cinders. You decimated thousands of them in a bloody and brutal campaign. They showed you no mercy in kind. You were reprimanded by the Asari for it, had to pay reparations, all because your military were simply doing their jobs."

Garrus just rolled his eyes.

"Mistakes were made on both sides, we all came to see that eventually," he told the batarian rather plainly. "The whole incident was one big misunderstanding and miscommunication. We overreacted before we thought and the Alliance weren't in the mood for diplomacy. The situation didn't need to go as far as it did. That's how I've come to see it. Besides, I've known plenty of turians who have failed to live up to my species' standards over the years. Individuals are more often the problem rather than whole groups. Plain and simple."

"Nobody being blameless doesn't mean someone isn't more at fault," Varvok argued. "And I don't think you seem to appreciate my unique situation. I joined the Swords of Khar'Shan because I wanted to right a wrong against my people, to open the stars to the Hegemony again. All my men did the same thing. Now, we're working with one of the chief reasons for our current set of problems and I made the deal with him. I'm a traitor in the eyes of my people, my men are traitors. We're working with the enemy. Can you at least acknowledge how difficult that is? How tenuous my position is?"

Garrus supposed he did see that part of Varvok's side of things. He was leading a group of people who didn't join to help save an alternate Earth from annihilation. Hell, they probably expected to help invade it just for target practice. Now, to save their people, they had to do the opposite. Whiplash did not even begin to describe that kind of situation. In Garrus' mind though, how difficult the situation was didn't matter. They had to accept this, Varvok had to accept it and bury whatever hatchet he still held in regards to his issues with Shepard.

"I'm squadmates with a geth," Garrus relented. "I killed a lot of his fellow synthetics. They were a separate faction, but I digress, they were still geth. So believe me, I get how weird it can be. You want to know how hard getting past that was? Ask Tali. She'll tell you the same thing, she had to admit to herself that she was wrong about a lot of things. Legion had to re-evaluate how it understood and saw the quarians. It was for the better of both their people they did that."

"Good for the quarian," Varvok said grimacing. "But I'd rather not have my situation compared to that of a failed master and a insubordinate slave that are now friends. What the humans did to us, what Shepard has done, is not so easily swept away."

Garrus just sighed, shaking his head. Like arguing with a brick wall, as he predicted.

"You know, if you bothered to actually reflect on yourself a little, maybe walk a mile or two in others' shoes, you'd be making more progress with this than you are now," he told the batarian with a frustrated look. "Also, I'd best be careful talking that way around either Tali or Legion. I'm not sure they'd be appreciate being called a slaver or an uppity slave. Just fair warning."

"Like I care what a machine and a quarian think of me," Varvok huffed.

"Oh you would if you knew Tali like I did," Garrus grinned. "She's very sweet and loving, but she can be really vicious. Trust me on that."

Legion approached behind Garrus, gaining the turian's attention. He silently thanked the spirits, he was not interested in going further into this debate than he already had.

"We have reached a consensus on several potential organic energy sources that could be viable for longterm consumption," it stated. "Mordin-Professor may have use of them for hydroponics lab currently under construction as well."

"Good find, Legion," Garrus complimented.

"One jackal also attempted to tear sections off this platform," Legion said. "Minor defensive measures were required."

Legion looked over it's shoulder to one Jackal who's beak was stuck in the side of a stall. He was trying to pull himself out to no avail. Garrus sighed deeply.

"I really hate this place," he groaned. "Let's get the food and put some space between us and this section of the markets. I want to get back over to Grunt and Kasumi. I don't like leaving either of them alone with Retz for too long."

* * *

Retz looked over the assortment of rifles with a shrewd eye. He checked the stock, sights and barrel once or twice. The vendor behind the counter of "Human Boomsticks Emporium" rapped his claws against the table impatiently as he did. Grunt wasn't much better, seemingly bored out of his mind as he waited for anything to happen.

"Look buddy, are you going to buy something or are you just going to scrutinize every little detail of every gun?" The owner asked grumbling. "They're real, I keep telling you that! Do you want them or not?"

"I do, but I'm considering quality over quantity," Retz explained. "I don't just want any old human pistol scooped up off the battlefield, you know."

"I get them from all over," the owner informed him scowling. "The hairless apes are getting creamed by the Covenant. Problem is getting the things before the Covies glass the place. Every bullet, bomb and weapon my contacts can nab costs me a hell of a lot of credits. If you're honestly trying to haggle down on price because you find a scratch or two somewhere, forget it. Transportation alone costs me a bundle, I need to make a living. So if you can't actually afford anything stop wasting my time and get out."

"I can afford it, I assure you," Retz promised, placing the rifle back on the rack. "My concern is if they're still in working condition. They're useless to me otherwise, I'm not looking for trophies or a mantlepiece. I need them to still be capable of killing."

The owner eyed him suspiciously, but seemed intrigued nonetheless. He ushered Retz over to him, looking about the storefront carefully.

"Alright, you want something that can kill, huh? Good condition even?" He began slyly. "I got something just in."

The Jackal dropped down behind the counter and then stood back up. He slammed a shotgun down on the table top with a grin across his beak.

"They call it a Shotgun," he said. "Weird weapon, fires a spread of lead from these little things."

He showed a small shell which he quickly loaded into the weapon through the feeder.

"Fast reloading, depends mostly on your fingers," he stated. "Can kill a sangheili at point blank range easy, shields or no shields. It's a fucking monster of a gun. Contact of mine stole them from this armory awhile back, shipped four crates right here. I have them on order for a special client, but I can part with at least one, maybe two for the right price."

Retz looked at the weapon from afar, the shopkeeper wasn't stupid enough to pass him a loaded gun it seemed. The jackal then looked back up and grinned sinisterly.

"How about all of them?" He asked bluntly.

The store owner laughed uproariously.

"Buddy, you don't have nearly enough creds for all of them," he declared. "Not enough to make me change my mind about the other client. He's paying me an easy half million."

"But I have something worth more than that," Retz declared. "Nay, worth pretty much all your good stock in fact. Something that I, on good authority, know you've been looking for yourself."

As if on cue, the sound of some very large rumbled into view of the storefront's open door. The owner looked to see at least three other Jackals hitching a ride on top of a large Wraith tank, armed with Carbines and Needle guns. The owner's beak dropped open in shock.

"You have a tank?" He asked in shock.

"I have a tank," Retz replied. "Actually I have a few, but I'm willing to part with one. I'm also willing to let you inspect it of course, take your time, my associates will help show you everything."

The owner nodded, still in shock, but he regained his composure long enough to say something.

"Just so you know, I have this container set with an alarm," he cautioned sternly. "You step out with anything it's going to go off. And all the ammunition is locked in the back, so the gun is useless to you even if you do get away."

"I understand completely, good sir," Retz replied feigning humility. "I have no reason to steal anything. As you can see, I can afford whatever I want."

The owner finally let his guard down and left the counter behind. He went outside to take a look at the tank. Grunt let out a groan as he did.

"Why is this taking so long?" He demanded to know. "Just pay for the guns and let's leave."

"You need to understand the art of the deal, Mr. Grunt," Retz informed him. "You want the most bang for your buck, in this case in a somewhat literal meaning, then you have to let me work my magic."

Grunt stomped slightly closer to the pirate and glared at him.

"It's Urdnot Grunt and you better not be wasting our time," he growled. "Just because I like your parties doesn't mean I'm forgiving. I'm here to make sure you do what Shepard asked."

"Apologies, Mr. Urdnot," Retz replied, no hint of fear in his voice. "I promise, we will get as many guns as we can carry and return them to the UNSC. You have my word as a pirate."

Grunt didn't seem to get the irony of that statement as he just lumbered over to a set of heavy machine guns in the corner. He was probably wondering if he could use one in a fight. Retz in the meantime moved over to a back corner behind a display. There Kasumi deactivated her cloak, she had watched everything more or less as she surveyed the store. The amount of stolen human weapons was certainly impressive, but she admired Retz's hustling a little more.

"You certainly took the owner by surprise," she complimented. "Did you suspect he'd reveal he had so many shotguns?"

"I'd suspected I'd get his attention once he realized I was looking for high quality and something that could rip my enemies to apart," Retz clarified with a smug look on his face. "You always have to make them believe they have something over you I find, reveal their hand. Then you show them that their offer can be overridden when you have something they can't afford to just pass them by. It's all part of the game."

Kasumi crossed his arms and grinned at the Jackal slyly.

"You've been doing this for awhile, haven't you?" She asked pryingly.

"Only since I hatched," he shrugged with a cocky grin. "I imagine your career as a thief is probably about as long as mine."

"I wouldn't say I was stealing things since birth," she replied. "But yeah, it's been a bit of a career I suppose. Back then I was bigger on the theatrics, left roses as a calling card, got older and realized that was silly. I figured out quickly that you shouldn't draw attention to yourself, better to be the best, not the most infamous."

"A wise strategy," Retz complimented. "How'd you manage that? People tend to notice when things go missing."

"True, but I have my ways, I've learned how to cover my tracks," she explained. "I once swapped out a priceless bust for a very legitimate looking fake. It's still there, no one knows I have the original. Can't sell it, but it looks nice."

Retz laughed approvingly at the story.

"You are a thief after my own heart, Ms. Goto," he applauded. "A clever ruse will always get you further than brute force I always say. You must have quite the fortune at this point."

"I have a decent cash fund," Kasumi replied modestly. "It was never really about the money though. I like the thrill more than anything. The fact it pays is just a bonus."

"Daredevil, huh?" The Jackal noted curiously. "Wish I had the same luxury when I was a kid. Stealing is more a way of life, the necessity of survival. Back home, if you want to make it anywhere, you need to learn the rules of the trade fast. The chief one being strangely similar to a phrase I heard in one of your people's vids the other night. I believe it was... take what you can, give nothing back. More than a few kig-yar live by that."

"I noticed," she said observantly. "It sounds like a very hard life to be honest. What with everyone being out for themselves and, by extension, out to get you."

Retz, surprisingly, nodded at the statement.

"It's true, it can be a very worrying existence," he agreed. "That's why there is another rule. Find someone you can place your trust in and be mindful of who you seek out in the process. No kig-yar can ever hope to get far in life without a partner or crew. It's suicide to try otherwise. If no one besides yourself is watching your back, how can you protect it when you look away?"

"That's surprisingly poetic coming from a Jackal," Kasumi said admiringly. "I suppose that's how you met Zek?"

Retz perched an eyebrow curiously.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"No offense to your friend, but you two don't really seem that much alike," Kasumi explained struggling to find the right words. "He's not as articulate as you, I guess."

"I suppose you mean he's more blunt?" Retz questioned. "I'll admit, Zek is far more impulsive in his machinations. He's also not nearly as good at lying, but he's got plenty of cunning and tenacity. He's a damn good pirate and he's a great negotiator in his own right. He prefers the action more than me, but make no mistake, he plays the game as well as anyone on our ship."

"So how did you two meet, exactly?" Kasumi asked, her curiosity piqued.

Retz looked partially away, a slight smile growing across his face. Kasumi could see the memories flooding into his mind as he thought of days long gone. It was the same expression she wore every time she thought of Keiji.

"I was, about eleven, maybe twelve," he began, his voice rife with nostalgia. "I was living on the Northern Continent of Eayn. The cities there are rife with high end businesses. I had been casing this antique store of a sort, planning to steal some of the items in its window. They were for a buyer who I had on good authority was interested in them."

"You had a buyer at age eleven?" Kasumi asked, slightly not sure if she believed him.

"Started with a fence at age five," Retz informed her. "Now please, this is my story, remember?"

Kasumi settled in, figuring she asked the damn question, might as well hear the whole story out.

"The security system was tight, but I believed that I could get in and out without raising any alarm," the jackal continued, his voice a bit excited by the old memory. "I was already well underway to unlocking the front door when I suddenly heard this strange thumping noise at my back. I turned to find another kig-yar, younger than me, age eight at minimum , throwing heavier and heavier rocks and bricks at the window. He was getting more and more frustrated by how it wasn't breaking."

"So, Zek always had a bit of a temper, huh?" Kasumi asked.

"I think he got it from his father," Retz admitted. "Dread Feather was known to lose it now and then. Anyway, I had to stop him before he woke up half the block and, of course, stole my take. We argued for a bit over who had cased the joint first. Until we realized we were after completely different things. Zek had found out, after working as a part-time helper at the store, that the owner kept a bunch of really valuable pieces in a safe in the back. That I did not know, because I was only really looking for the stuff my buyer wanted. We both soon realized that we had a common interest, but more importantly we had skills that complemented each other. I had the plan and resources, Zek had the muscle and the ambition."

"So you teamed up?" Kasumi asked, already knowing the answer.

"I got us in without sounding the alarm and Zek used his insider knowledge to, not only break into the safe, but also steal some other pieces he had learned were as equally valuable," Retz said, jovially recounting the moment. "We slinked away into the night with a bigger take than either of us had originally planned on. It was the start of a beautiful partnership. Ever since then, I've been the strategic brains and he has been the tactical field man. We've been inseparable ever since."

A cute story to be sure, Kasumi had to keep herself from giggling at the thought of two baby Jackals stealing together. Then she realized it was fairly easy to do that, considering how Jackals looked.

"You must've gone through a lot together over the years," she noted. "Starting your partnership at such a young age I mean."

"Con-artists, burgling, we were fishermen for awhile, that was mostly a front for smuggling of course," Retz listed off. "Then we learned of Zek's true parentage and inherited his father's last ship. That was when we became pirates and then we became privateers awhile later when the Covenant caught up to us. Now we're pirates again."

"And allied with the UNSC," Kasumi added. "What strange paths we follow."

Retz hemmed and hawed a bit at her comment.

"Allied is a strong word," he stated. "I prefer arrangement, it fits better. I might be willing to upgrade that to partnership if some things start bearing fruit."

"Such as?" Kasumi asked, her curiosity returned.

"Well, this sugar for one thing is interesting," he admitted.

Kasumi wasn't expecting to hear that from him. Sugar? What did that have to do with anything?

"Why are you interested in sugar?" She asked.

"Try to understand," Retz replied rather slyly. "I've never been big on ichor, but I don't begrudge it's consumption by others. Everyone needs something to indulge in, something to make them happy. It works for them. Unfortunately, ichor is really hard to get what with Covenant prohibiting it's production and distribution. The pirate clans who have a firm grip on the racket won't let it go. There's money in it, but it's also risky. That and there's always someone out there who wants a different fix. I kind of felt such a thing last night when I apparently ingested some of sugar. The low was harsh, but the high was certainly something while it lasted."

Kasumi's mind went a mile a minute as she processed the Jackal's words. This did not seem spur of the moment, these thoughts on sugar. Her mind went back to earlier in the day when the pirate had gotten into some himself. How he had just gotten away from everyone without them knowing. Then it hit her.

"That crewmen who got into the pantry, the one that got a sugar rush," she said, her voice rising in surprise at her realization. "That was planned, wasn't it?"

"Partly, I admit," Retz shrugged, sounding rather proud of himself as he explained. "I knew something had given me a buzz of sorts, other members of the crew felt the same. Korz was one of them, he has a very addictive personality. I made sure he was selected to come with us to the _Normandy_. I knew we wouldn't have another chance for awhile after last night's incident. I also suggested to him that it had to have been something in the food we ate, knowing he'd want to feel the buzz again. I knew he'd slip off, I just had to keep everyone's attention as long as possible, just until he found what we were looking for."

"You conned us," Kasumi said, both in admiration and indignation. "Why? You could've just asked about what happened to you and what might have caused it."

"Easier this way and I couldn't be sure what Shepard would do otherwise," Retz explained. "He might have used it as a reason to lock up the food or stalled or asked for medical tests. This plan offered the quickest results. Now I know human sugar has some kind of adverse effect on kig-yar. It may prove a very profitable commodity in the future."

Kasumi let whatever anger she had at the thought of being tricked subside for a moment. Her thoughts turned to the general problem with the plan.

"Most sugar is in the hands of humans," she reminded him. "A lot of it would only be found on colonies this far out in space. It's not going to be easy to acquire it."

"Human colonists need protection as much as anyone," Retz stated confidently. "I'm sure they'd part with their sweet powder if they had Covenant weapons to protect their family with. The UNSC can't be everywhere, not with the war apparently getting closer to their home system if I understand it."

Kasumi had to admit, it was a decent idea of sorts. At least he wasn't planning on taking the sugar by force. Would any colonist desperate for something to use against the killer aliens really say no to that deal? She couldn't think of any who would value sugar over their lives. Maybe really fat people, but still.

"It's going to take some doing to convince Holland or anyone to visit a human colony to pick up sugar," she warned. "Maybe for supplies, but you'd have to find a place with a lot of it."

"Details we can work out later," Retz reasoned plainly. "I'm sure there's a few colonies with some sugar nearby that we can make a detour too. We're going to need supplies again at some point."

Retz returned his gaze to Kasumi, his smile more or less returned.

"But we should be focused on far more pressing matters," he said grinning. "You heard our friend before. He keeps most of the ammunition in the back. Holland will be happy to have the guns back, but he'll be even happier to have more bullets overall. I don't want to blow our entire budget here, not with some rare Covenant weapons I'm aware of."

"And you want me to see if I can steal some extra ammo, huh?" She asked. "Well, I have a lot of pockets but it's not going to be that easy. Thermal clips are a lot easier to smuggle, less heavier than actual bullets too."

"You said you're best thief in the galaxy," Retz reminded her. "I'd be astonished if you couldn't swipe some measly bullets and shells when you can steal a valuable bust without anyone realizing it."

He was challenging now, she couldn't let that pass her by.

"Alright buddy, you're on," she declared. "I'll get enough ammo out and the owner won't even know I did it."

"Good, I was worried for a second you'd have some moral objection," Retz said in relief. "Then I would have to go on a big speech about how it's stealing from another thief so therefore it's not wrong and how it's for a good cause and I'd be really bored while doing it."

"Remember who you're talking to here," Kasumi laughed. "I'm in it for the thrill."

Kasumi turned her cloak back on, just as the owner returned.

"Alright it checks out," he relented with a sigh. "Everything is in working order. By the time I'm done selling off all the parts I'll have enough credits to replace over half the stock I have. I assume you want the shotguns for it."

"Yes, but I'm not sure that's nearly enough to convince me to sell it to you," Retz said smugly staring over at some human pistols.

"Fine," the owner grumbled. "What else you want?"

Retz just grinned a wide sinister grin.

"That depends," he said. "You have anything called a rocket launcher?"

* * *

The walk to the inner sanctum of the Hollow had not been a great one. Today had opened some old wounds he really hadn't expected to return. His stomach felt like it was loaded with stones as he walked. He supposed he expected any reunion with Taq to go badly, but he honestly thought he could at least mend the bridge a little. Now he was realizing he may have burned to ashes and he hated his younger self even more. He had gotten attached, he got scared and he ran. Just like his father did, and feeling guilty over it did little to rebuild his self-esteem.

There was nothing he could do though, Taq had moved on, that was clear. As much as he wanted to chase after her, it would only push her away more. He needed to let her go, maybe catch her after she made this score of hers, she'd probably be more receptive then. He wasn't giving up, but he knew this wasn't the right time. Besides, he had other business.

He approached the club, "Abysmal Grotto", named after the fabled watery grave the old sailors talked of, "The Grotto of the Abyss." There was a long line up with armed guards keeping everyone out. Him though, he was expected. He walked up the VIP steps and was quickly ushered in once they noticed who he was. He wouldn't have likely gotten this treatment were not for the fact that this was the favorite hangout of the most powerful kig-yar in this sector of space.

The Hollow had no ruler, just a loose connection of people who made up it's "management" for lack of a better word. No one stayed here for long, just long enough to conduct business and relax. The ship was where most crime lords held their sway, not here. If there was one kig-yar who could be considered the boss though, at least while he was in port, it was one pirate in particular. Zhoc, also known by many as Old Scratch or the Old Man, but he preferred to be called by a specific nickname, his favorite, Snarlbeak.

There were few Pirate leaders who were male, most of the time female kig-yar commanded legions of ships and fleets. Snarlbeak was one of the rare exceptions, like Zek's father Dread Feather. Snarlbeak, however was the exception that proved the rule, as his rise to power was a special case. One steeped in violence, cruelty and bloodshed. So really, like a lot of pirates in general.

Zhoc had once been First Mate to his sister, a powerful Pirate fleet commander named Zvaz the Insidious. She had amassed a great pirate fleet that was the scourge of galaxy. Even the Covenant feared her. Few could best her in battle. Zhoc did not seem to share the bloodlust of his sister, preferring to be the cunning to her fierceness. It was his expert planning that allowed them to plunder colonies and shipping lanes, always a step ahead of the Covenant fleets. It was believed, one day, Zvaz would rise to take control of the pirate clans for herself.

Then it all changed in one raid. A civilian cargo vessel they had picked out to rob, everything seemed to be going good. Then, a sangheili mercenary cut Zvaz down, right in front of her brother. Zhoc, covered with the hot sticky blood of his beloved sibling stood in shock as the sangheili proclaimed his victory over the supposed unconquerable pirate queen.

Something inside Zhoc snapped that day, something dark and terrible. Before the prideful sangheili knew it, the enraged brother of his fallen foe was upon him, slicing into him with claw and energy cutlass. The sangheili stayed alive long enough to use a plasma dagger to carve a hideous scar across Zhoc's face, up his beak and into his left eye. Zhoc only noticed it after he mutilated the sangheili warrior's corpse. When he saw what he had done, he vomited at the sight of the blood of both his sister and her killer pooling together.

Zhoc took command of his sister's fleet after that day, but he was not the same bird. Snarlbeak had been born. His sibling's ruthlessness had been transferred to him as he quickly made the fleet more feared, growing it ever larger and expanding the list of rackets they were involved in. The one difference, he never fought personally in a fight again. The sight of blood still sickened him. It helped sell his persona a bit, the one that was always grinning and smiling, a polite gentlemanly pirate. No one dared cross him, however, as everyone knew what he was capable of and what he was willing to do.

Meeting with him was dangerous, but Zek had a slight trump card in his favor. Snarlbeak and Dread Feather, his father, had been friends before his untimely demise. Zhoc had actually helped him get on his feet during his early days in the pirate business. They weren't friends, but Zhoc seemed to be more than affable to the son of his old confidant. Sentimentality went a long way in business arrangements. Zek hoped that the years away hadn't changed that.

Entering the club he moved passed the bar and subsequent dance floor towards the booths at the back. Most of these people were probably Snarlbeak's own crew. He tended to take over the place whenever he was in town. Suffice to say if you did something stupid to offend Zhoc, well you probably wouldn't live long. Another reason to get this over with quickly.

He made it to the back booths and found Zhoc in his usual place, surrounded by food, drink and a number of heavily armed guards. The Old Man was halfway through a big mug of ichor when he noticed Zek approaching. He slammed down his mug and smiled wide, his arms cascading about him in a welcoming gesture.

"Zek!" He greeted in a smooth inviting tone of voice. "By the ocean, it truly is you! Come! Sit! Have a drink! This is great day, my friends! The son of Dread Feather has finally returned!"

There was no clapping, despite Zhoc's insistence, just murmured grunts and tough guy looks. They were paid to be intimidating, not welcoming. The guards did give Zek a seat at the table and placed a mug of ichor in front of him though, so they weren't all bad. Zek, wanting to show he was a grateful guest, eagerly took the mug.

"It's good to be back," he stated proudly, before taking a big long swig. "Ah, good stuff as always."

"Special recipe, Spiced Ichor Rum," Zhoc informed him with beaming pride. "Had it specially made for my private stock. Broke it out when I heard you were coming, kid. Figured you deserved the best after your ordeal."

Zhoc had a tight hold on the ichor business last time Zek had been here. It seemed that hadn't changed, hell it had apparently expanded. Most black market ichor was just regular processed bile, straight from the boil on the Chorka. It was good, but the flavor varied from season to season and where you took it from on the body. Mixing it into rum, grog, beer or whatever drink you liked took a lot more time and effort and careful selection of Chorka stock. How Zhoc was managing to do that no one could say. Perhaps he had a secret processing plant on Eayn.

"It's good to be free of a shitty contract," Zek acknowledged, raising his mug. "I'm already painting the serpent on the side of my ship I always talked about. Figured it was about time."

"Yes, why waste time talking when you should just do it, eh?" Zhoc laughed in agreement. "After all, tomorrow could be our last, right? Seize the moment! That's what my dear sister always believed."

The guards hung their heads in respect at the mention of Zvaz. Zhoc looked to each of them in turn, making sure they did so. They didn't have to honor his guest, but his sister was another story. When that was over he quickly returned to their discussion.

"The Covenant probably weren't happy when you terminated your contract I suppose," Zhoc suggested. "I imagine you took many with you when you escaped."

"I took enough," Zek answered proudly. "How much exactly do you know about what happened anyway?"

"Oh, you know the Covenant," Zhoc said waving his hand about. "They like keeping things quiet more or less, defeats, traitors who escape, anything that makes it look like they're not invincible. All anyone knows is a kig-yar pirate turned on one of their fleets and ran. Knew it had to be you, you're one of the few crazy enough to fight your way out of a Covie armada."

Good, Zek thought, he doesn't know the full details. It probably wouldn't be wise to mention things like killing a prophet or aligning with humans. The devastated Fleet of Particular Justice was probably still in disarray after what had happened, it would take awhile for the whole story to become clear. He'd be long gone by then with any luck.

"Yeah," Zek said chuckling. "It was a pretty crazy thing to do in hindsight. More than my old man did of course though, right? I mean, I'm still alive!"

The two of them had a hearty laugh at that. Zhoc never seemed to mind joking about Dread Feather. Probably because, as Zek suspected at least, that his old man was not anywhere near the pirate his son now was. A little egotistical, perhaps, but Zek liked thinking it was true.

"So, how have you been anyway?" He asked Zhoc jovially. "What's Snarlbeak been up to while I was away?"

"A lot of things Zek," Zhoc replied, smoothing out the blackened quills on his head as he did. "Profits are up really high from last year. I just added a new battlecruiser to my fleet. Have to modify it, of course, but it should serve me well. I'm also in the process of setting up some outposts within Jiralhanae space. Those dumb apes are getting command of more ships, but they lack the finesse of the Sangheili. Their weapons should sell well on the black market."

"Boarding those ships must be a pain," Zek noted. "I've seen some of those monkeys fight, they're insane."

"I don't board their ships, Zek," Zhoc laughed affably. "I'm no fool. I blow open their hulls and let the primates suffocate. Easier to scoop up the weapons after that."

Ruthless but efficient, that was the Snarlbeak mission statement. Not that Zek's newfound friends in the UNSC could say any different, especially after their latest escapade. It was just the way Zhoc said it with a smile that was so unsettling. Zek took another sip from his mug to hide the fact he was a bit put off by said grin.

It was then he noticed the big lug of a kig-yar standing next to Zhoc. He was a large, imposing member of the species, but he wasn't the same as him or Zhoc. Where his beak should've been were a set of vicious toothy jaws. His quills were thicker, his skin scalier and he was fairly muscular, for a kig-yar anyway.

"Recruiting from Ibie'sh now I see?" Zek observed.

"Ah yes, how rude of me," Zhoc chuckled. "This is Lurz, my latest chief enforcer. I find his people on the southern continent an interesting breed. They're very aggressive, out for the thrill of the kill, the sting of a good fight. Lurz here is my favorite, such a loyal and dear friend. Say hello, Lurz, don't be shy."

Lurz just snorted and bared his teeth, Zhoc could only laugh.

"Forgive him, he is a creature of few words," he explained.

"Hey, no need to apologize," Zek assured, trying to hide his slightly shaken nerves. "Silence is golden and all that, heh, heh. Anyway, about why I came here."

"Ah yes, repairs," Zhoc nodded, toning down his demeanor slightly. "I've heard about that."

Zhoc took a brief swig of his drink before realizing it was near empty. He grumbled slightly and banged on the table of few times with it's bottom.

"Few people can break a slipspace drive and live," he noted, sounding a bit suspicious. "Honestly, I have to wonder what you could've done and why you were forced to do it."

"Details, details," Zek shrugged. "I don't want to bore you. Besides, you know how those drives the Covenant give to their minions are crap. You do tons of mods on yours and you make them run way better. Covies keep the best tech for their golden boys, the sangheili."

"Yes," Zhoc said with a dry grimace across his face. "That race wide cult of warriors certainly gets more credit than they are worth."

Zhoc suddenly started banging his mug down hard on the table. He then murmured to himself a series of angry grumbles, asking something about what was taking so long. Zek tried to keep the conversation going.

"Anyway, I know you don't just give out spare slipspace drives to just anyone," he stated. "I don't expect special treatment. So I brought you something that might interest you."

Zek took out the datapad and slid it over to Zhoc. He stopped the slide with his claw and brought it up to his face. As he began to search through the documents on it, Zek explained what he was looking.

"These are blueprints for an advanced type of mineral extraction probe," he explained diligently. "I know you're in the market of planet and asteroid stripping. This could easily reduce surface mining time by half. You just float in orbit, scan the planet below and when you find a high concentration of minerals, you launch. The probe hits the ground, gathers up the surface deposit and flies right back up with the results. It also can do advanced scouting, perfect for determining any anomalies your scans detect. Crashed ship, hidden weapons cache, who knows? The probe can find it."

Zek knew the instant he saw the _Normandy's_ probe schematics that Zhoc wouldn't be able to resist. Strip mining was an easy and quick buck, something all kig-yar appreciated. Plus it gave you extra materials for your own ships and it cost you way less then it took to buy them. The look on the Old Man's face said it all, he was pleased.

"My, my Zek," he said fairly impressed. "Where in the universe did you stumble upon this type of tech?"

"I got my sources," Zek answered simply, figuring he wouldn't pry deeper.

Lucky for him, Zhoc didn't pry as that was when the unggoy servant finally approached, carrying a fresh mug of ichor. The gas-sucker was limping slightly as he moved and he was wheezing more than usual for his species. Zek eyed him as the unggoy placed the mug down on the table. Snarlbeak snatched it away from him, giving a furious look as he kept the datapad clutched in his other hand.

"Finally," he grumbled. "Stupid slow slave."

Zhoc took a short swig of the mug and then, suddenly spat it back out in disgust. He slammed the mug on the table and turned to the unggoy with a fury in his eyes, his smooth friendly tone replaced by one of pure rage.

"The hell is this?!" He demanded furiously. "This is the wrong recipe! The wrong stock! Worse yet, it's been spoiled! Spoiled!"

He threw the mug at the unggoy's head, hitting him between the eyes.

"You got it from an open bottle didn't you? One you probably left sitting on the counter like an idiot!"

"Me sorry, sirs!" The unggoy said, near to the edge of tears. "Me make mistake! It not happen again! Please!"

Zhoc's eyes grew cold as he leaned back in his booth.

"No," he said in a low rumbling snarl. "No, it will not. Lurz."

The large Ibie'shan Kig-Yar grabbed the unggoy by his collar and started violently pulling him away from the table. The poor pathetic creature cried in anguish, grasping at the table top as the kig-yar pulled. He pleaded with Zhoc, apologized profusely as he was dragged away. Zhoc watched every moment of it with an unwavering glare as the screaming unggoy was dragged out the back door nearby. Zek could hear the faint screaming and pounding of skin on flesh. He had to fight back his shock at the scene. Unggoys were stupid cowardly ingrates but that seemed a little extreme, even for him. It was just spoiled ichor, yell at him sure, but that went a little far.

"The service here has really gone down the toilet sadly," Zhoc said, his demeanor slowly returning to a more affable state. "Sorry about that, Zek. You know how it is though, if you don't stress the importance of something, unggoy will fuck it up. And sadly, there are just some you can never reach."

"Uh, yeah," Zek said, trying his best not to look put off by the scene. "Unggoy, man, idiots."

He was feeling a lot less comfortable at the moment. Mainly because of the words Zhoc had just used. They were eerily similar to what he had said to Garrus earlier. Too similar actually. But no, no, he wasn't anything like this. He just yelled at and insulted the methane suckers. He never did anything like this. He wasn't that bad, was he? No of course he wasn't. So why did his brain keep replaying the terrified look in that unggoy's eyes as he was dragged away. He took another drink of ichor, trying to put the thought out of his mind. It suddenly didn't taste nearly as good.

Zhoc in the meantime was scratching his scar slightly, as relaxed as he had been before. Zek just tried to retain his composure, even as his ears kept picking up the faint beating continuing outside.

"You should consider getting into the slave trade now that I think about it," Zhoc suggested casually. "Good money, you know."

"Never was into living cargo to be honest," Zek admitted. "Way too many problems with it."

"Hmm, I suppose, less competition for me anyway," Zhov said with a shrug as he turned back to Zek, his affable smile returning. "I think we can make a deal here with this tech of yours. I have a shiny new slipspace drive with your name on it. Heavily modified, sufficiently upgraded, way faster than the crap the Covenant stuck you with. I'll have it at your ship within the hour."

"Thank you, sir," Zek said quicker then he would've liked. "I really appreciate that."

"Oh think nothing of it," Zhoc insisted. "It's a good trade. Besides, you're practically family. Dread Feather was a dear friend. I feel obligated to assist his offspring in any way I can."

Lurz entered again suddenly, his hands covered in bright blue gore and blood. Zhoc instantly turned away, covering the side of his face with his claw. One of the guards passed the brutish kig-yar a towel to wipe the neon blue blood away. When he was clean, Zhoc returned his gaze to Zek, his smile once more back on his face.

"I suppose we're done here," Zek stated. "Best be going."

"You sure? Why not stay awhile?" Zhoc asked "I have plenty of Ichor rum."

"Nah, I think I've had enough for today," Zek said. "Thanks for the offer."

He got up and turned to leave, still trying to banish the thought of the unggoy's body laying in the back alley from his mind. That was when Zhoc called out to him suddenly.

"Zek, I just remembered," he shouted. "Do you recall that female you were with? Taq?"

"Yeah," Zek said turning back around. "But that ended a good while ago."

"Yes, such a shame," Zhoc said, shaking his head, feigning sadness. "I only ask because I wonder if you've been in contact with her."

"Why do you ask?" Zek questioned in return.

Zhoc started rubbing the back of his hand.

"No real reason to be honest," he admitted. "It's just that, well, we've had an arrangement for a while. I was expecting to see her today, but she hasn't arrived. I don't suppose you wouldn't know where she was?"

Zek didn't like the way he was asking these questions. They were more probing, more invasive, his voice was teetering slightly, sounding more like when he was getting frustrated over his drink not coming fast enough from before.

"I'm not sure, honestly," Zek stated plainly. "Why? What was she doing for you?"

"Just trying to get something for me," Zhoc said, running his finger around the edge of a mug. "You know that female. She can get anything from anywhere, even from Jiralhanae burial mounds of all places."

Zhoc laughed a little, a slight grin on his face as he did.

"It's just a trinket really," he explained further. "Something I need. I'm hoping she's just been delayed."

"Yeah, delayed," Zek said nodding. "That's probably all it is. Sorry I can't help, haven't see her myself. Sure she'll turn up."

"We'll see," Zhoc said, placing his fingertips together.

Zek started walking away again, waving a light goodbye and thanking Zhoc once more. When he was out the door he started walking faster before breaking into a sprint. His thoughts of the unggoy were gone for the moment, but a new face lying dead in the alley behind the club had taken his place. A face more personal and dear to him. He had changed his mind. Fuck giving her space, she needed help, his help, now!

* * *

Back in the "Abysmal Grotto", Zhoc's face fell from a smile to a monotone serious frown. Disappointing, he thought, so disappointing. He turned to Lurz slowly.

"Follow him," he ordered. "Bring heavy hitters."

Lurz just nodded and walked away.

"Are we still sending that slipspace drive to him?" Asked on of the guards.

"Of course we are," Zhoc assured. "We made a deal."

He reached for another mug of ichor rum. He raised it up and grinned widely.

"Snarlbeak always honors his deals."

* * *

Shepard stepped out of the briefing room of the _Normandy_ , he had just finished with an urgent update from Liara back home. What he had been told was rather startling, but what was worse was he wasn't sure what he could do about it. He'd have to discuss it with Holland later.

It was then Miranda showed up holding a datapad.

"There you are," she greeted, handing the pad to him. "Mordin has finished work on the hydroponics lab. We should have sufficient calorie count for most of the crew, so long as they don't have to much of a problem eating mostly potatoes."

"If it means we won't run out of French Fries, I think the Marines will be okay with it," Shepard replied. "At least we got some good news today."

"Yes, EDI said you were talking to Liara," Miranda recalled. "Trouble back home I assume."

"She infiltrated a dig site the Covenant have got the batarians digging," Shepard explained. "Besides some pretty disturbing developments about what their little alliance has in the works it also revealed something else that's a bit more of a concern to us."

Miranda cross her arms in thought.

"I am assuming this has something to do with ancient artifacts?" She asked.

"That's becoming a theme lately," Shepard answered observantly. "I'll brief everyone in full once this supply mission is done. Easier to figure out a strategy that way. Speaking of, any word from Garrus?"

"They're making good progress," Miranda assured. "They've already marked off several items on the list. Apparently Zek was accurate, this hollowed out moon does have everything."

Nice to hear, but Shepard had a gut feeling the good news wouldn't last. Maybe it was his talk with Liara, maybe it was just the fact things with the Jackals hadn't been going as smoothly as he hoped. Either way, he was prepared for it.

"Keep Plan B ready to go just in case," he told her. "If something happens I want us to be able to react to it fast."

"Don't worry, Commander," Miranda assured. "It's just waiting for your go ahead. Hopefully we won't need it."

Shepard suppressed a mocking laugh. Hope they didn't nee a backup plan, he thought,when did that ever work out for them?

* * *

Retz and Garrus regrouped at the dry docks, where repairs on the _Fallen Serpent_ were already well underway. Everyone else was busy helping get the supplies on board, leaving just the turian and the pirate by themselves for the moment. Retz looked pleased with the progress on the repairs. The hull was nearly back to code and the badly damaged weapons had been replaced. At the moment, upgrades to said systems were being put in place. Retz even got news from a subordinate that they had finished installing one additional system that was bound to cheer Zek up.

"Our speaker systems just went in," he informed Garrus. "Now our men won't have to miss out on music while they're working. I'm already considering a playlist of sorts from your pilot's expansive music library."

"Uh huh," Garrus said, not really looking at the Jackal as he spoke. His gaze instead was on the crew of the _Serpent_ running around. "Is it just me, or is there a lot more of them than usual?"

Retz looked over to the crew still working on the ship briefly and then back to Garrus.

"Well, maybe a few more," he admitted. "There's always someone on the Hollow looking for work. Every now and then someone's ship gets confiscated or stolen and they get stuck here. It's only natural that-"

"You are missing my point," Garrus informed him, growing through his mandible a she did. "You said this was a supply run, you said nothing about recruitment."

Retz's monotone expression barely changed, his demeanor unaltered. He didn't look the slightest bit guilty or ashamed at being found out.

"When you lose a lot of people in combat you kind of need to replace them," he said unapologetically. "Do you want our ship to be understaffed?"

"How do you think Holland is going to feel about you adding more of unknown elements to this fleet?" Garrus asked, frustrated at how oblivious to the shit-storm Retz had potentially placed them in. "We already have the grunts you offered asylum, plus the extra Jackals who joined up when you took the other corvette."

" _Chorka_ ," Retz corrected. "We named it the _Crusty Chorka_ , if you recall."

"Whatever! You're exacerbating a security issue we have yet to work out!" Garrus shouted in anger. "This wasn't part of the plan when we came here!"

Retz just sighed, crossing his arms in indignation at the turian.

"Look, me and Zek appreciate your unique and problematic situation," he explained grimacing. "We share your burden in fact, we're stuck together. I myself share these very concerns you express, believe me. However, we have to consider business in the long term for ourselves. We suffered a lot casualties over the past few days, some of them were your doing I might add. You can't expect us to sit on that issue forever."

"Did you even think about the various problems this is going to cause?" Garrus asked, himself rather angry.

"I did," Retz replied. "On one hand, potential security risks from new recruits who haven't built up the same brand of loyalty as our season vets have. On the other hand, our manpower has taken a substantial hit and Holland is angry at us using his men to supplement our taking of the carrier. He doesn't want to help us build up a pirate fleet, he's made that clear. If we're going to be self-sufficient and not have to go through that round of nonsense again, we need to get our crew complement back up to standard. We won't have to rely as much on the Marines, they won't feel like they're being used as muscle, we get our ship back up to code, everyone wins!"

Garrus supposed he understood the Jackal's side of it. That didn't make him like what was happening any better though. The defense still didn't answer his chief concern.

"What about security?" He asked again. "What happens when they figure out what they signed on for?"

"Please, I'm not an unggoy," Retz snorted back defensive. "I know what I'm doing, I gave explicit instruction to my recruiters on who to look for. I'll show you."

Retz looked for and pointed out a new Jackal in the crowd. He called him over, taking him away from his job loading the ship with supplies. He eagerly rushed over to them and stood at attention.

"What's your name, new blood?" Retz asked.

"Krez, sir," the feathery Jackal replied. "I just got off of T'Vao and I'm ready to make some creds with the son of the legendary Dread Feather."

"Alright, alright, don't need to oversell it," Retz told him. "Nice to see another T'Vaoan myself. Got off that rock as soon I could sneak aboard merchant ship bound for the homeworld. Has it changed much?"

"Still a craggy shit hole, sir," Krez said. "Why I got off when I could."

Garrus cleared his throat, hoping Retz would get back to the point he had been trying to make.

"Quick question, fledgling," Retz began. "What's your opinion on the Covenant?"

"Bunch of preachy losers, sir," Krez claimed. "And their mandatory sermons take precious time away from earning credits and drinking ichor."

Retz laughed a little at that, but kept on track.

"And your opinion on humans?" Retz asked.

"Uh, I don't have much of one," Krez admitted, seemingly befuddled. "I do hear they have money though and the Covenant hates them. So they can't be all bad. They have to have something worthwhile trading for."

Retz nodded in approval at the response.

"Why do we keep getting that question anyway?" Krez asked. "Are we going to run some kind of protection racket? I hear the human worlds further out in space can't count on their fleet to save their asses."

"Not important right now, new blood," Retz assured him. "Best get those crates loaded, you'll be briefed with the others later."

The recruit just nodded and took off back to his original duty. Retz then looked back to Garrus.

"See?" He said, his voice expecting something of an apology. "I purposely made sure we got people who didn't care about humans or the prospect of working with them. Which is most kig-yar in general, especially those here."

"Humans are labeled as abominations by the Covenant," Garrus reminded him. "Are you saying there are no Jackals who would be adverse to working with them? Not even the tiniest bit of doubt?"

"If they can make credits off it, they won't care," Retz insisted. "Our code is very clear on this; Nothing is personal, all is business and profit is everything. Even if some of them aren't fans of humanity, they can look past that so long as they can get something out of it."

"Does everything always come back to money with you?" Garrus asked, his tone one of exhaustion at this point.

"Not everything," Retz stated. "Just a lot of things. We're a free trade society, what do you expect?"

Garrus knew he was going to have a hell of a time explaining this to Shepard. Then again, he couldn't exactly keep an eye on every Jackal from the _Serpent_ at all times, so he was reasonably certain he wouldn't get blamed for this. He would've liked to continue the conversation, but something else came up. Some Jackals with a large lifter machine of sorts rolled up through the crowd around the docks. Clutched in the machine's grasping claw, was slipspace drive.

"Ah, it's arrived," Retz declared happily.

He walked over to the device as the loader operator stepped out.

"One specially modified slipspace drive," he said casually. "Courtesy of Fleetmaster Snarlbeak."

"Snarlbeak?" Garrus asked, the name putting him off a bit.

Retz ignored him and placed his signature on the datapad the operator was holding out for him. At the same time, Jackals from the _Serpent_ placed a hover cart below the loader. The operator then placed the drive down slowly on top of it and the Jackals carted the drive back towards the ship.

"Well, we're practically done," Retz declared to Garrus. "See? It all went pretty smooth. I'll just contact Zek and let him know."

Retz got on the communicator, placing it on speaker so Garrus could hear.

"Zek, we got the drive and repairs almost done," he reported in as the call got picked up. "Also, we got pretty much everything on our list and still have a little left over in our budget. How soon can you meet up with us? Vakarian here is getting a bit antsy."

Garrus grimaced slightly, but that expression turned to confusion when Zek responded.

" _Retz, this is not a good time,"_ he said. _"Look, while I have you on the line, you wouldn't happen to have a link to the cameras monitoring the docks on hand would you?"_

"Uh yeah, I can get it," Retz said, sounding a bit confused himself. "Take me like a second. Why do you need camera feeds?"

" _Just do it and send them to my head piece,"_ Zek ordered. _"Don't ask why."_

Zek terminated the call and Retz looked over at a very disturbed Garrus.

"I'm sure it's nothing," he tried to reassure the turian.

"I bet," Garrus replied, not sounding at all convinced. "Nothing at all."

* * *

Taq was fed up with how things had been going so far. No one seemed interested in her little venture. However, there was a chance to turn things around. A small crew in one of the bars said they'd be willing to hear her full pitch in her ship, if they were offered something as an advanced payment for their time. She didn't exactly have a lot of credits on hand that she could spare, but she figured she had something her ship she could offer. They promised to wait for an hour while she got it. It wasn't much, but at least someone was willing to hear her out in private. Once they learned of the payday that awaited she knew they'd be hooked.

She kept thinking of what she had that could work. Some special cases of ichor? Maybe. A few personal pieces that she could give them? She hated the idea of parting with that ancient sangheili gauntlet, but maybe she could convince them to consider it collateral. If they didn't like her pitch, which she knew would not be the case when they realized it was the motherload, they could keep it. Yes, those could work. Maybe throw in a Type-25 Launcher she had recently stolen. No ammo, but the big ass blade on the end still made it deadly.

She was almost to her ship, feeling confident of her chances, when she heard the last thing she wanted to hear right now.

"Taq! Taq!"

"Oh for the love of shit," she groaned aloud.

She turned around to see Zek running up to her in a panic. Why couldn't he take a hint? She now considered just strangling the moron at this point.

"I don't have time for another sad excuse for an apology, Zek," she told him scowling as he approached. "I have to get back to some people real fast with something or I can kiss my expedition goodbye."

Zek rushed up to her and blocked the path to her ship, which she could now see just on the other side of the containers.

"Taq, you have to listen to me, you-"

"No, I don't have to listen to shit from you!" She shouted at him. "It's over, dumbass! Get that through your damn skull! Now out of my way!"

She pushed him aside, but Zek grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

"That tiny pyramid of yours," He shouted suddenly. "It was a job for Snarlbeak, wasn't it?"

Taq looked at him, her expression of anger turning to one of nervousness.

"How the hell do you-?"

"He knows you double crossed him! That you're keeping the take for yourself and that you're here!" Zek declared frantically. "Zhoc knows, Taq! You're not safe!"

"And how the hell do you know?" She asked again, her fear mixed with expectant anger.

"Because I spoke to him," Zek explained. "I got Retz to hack into the cameras so I could find you. If I can do that, Zhoc can too!"

Taq suddenly ripped away from his grip in anger.

"You idiot!" She screeched "You talked to Zhoc and then came looking for me!"

"I didn't think you were working for Old Scratch when I talked to him!" Zek shouted back. "More importantly, I didn't have much time to think when I realized he was after you! I had to get to you before he did!"

"Unggoy brain!" She said smacking him against the side of his head. "Did it ever occur to you he let on to our deal so you'd lead him to me!"

"Yeah," Zek admitted. "But I totally lost his lackeys, I swear! I'm a slippery one, remember?"

Suddenly, the ground shook, the artificial cavern resonated with a deafening sound and a red hot light exploded up from near the containers. The force of the blast sent both Taq and Zek to the ground in a heap. Taq looked up and saw the smoldering remains of her beloved ship burning, a blaze of fire rising up from the wreckage.

"My ship!" She shouted, her claws clutching at her scalp. "All my stuff was in there! ALL of my stuff!"

She turned and grabbed Zek by the collar and shook him violently.

"Mr. Slippery, huh?!" She asked sneering.

"My heart was in the right place this time though," he said chuckling nervously. "You can't fault me for that!"

"Ocean's depths I hate you!" She raged at him. "I hate you so much! Why do you keep ruining my life? Is it fun for you at this point?!"

Zek looked past her shoulder, fear in his eyes growing. With his hand and he pointed upwards.

"I think you have bigger problems than me right now," he told her, gulping a she did.

Taq turned and her expression of fear now matched Zek's. Standing atop the containers were three or four kig-yar armed with Fuel Rod cannons. Standing in the pathway, illuminated by the fire of her burning ship, was one large, very thuggish looking Ibie'shan with a Carbine snarling at them. He was flanked by two other kig-yar with weapons of their own.

"Oh fuck me," Taq groaned, she then quickly turned to Zek. "That was not an invitation by the way."

"Didn't think so," Zek assured her, his voice in full panic. "Come on!"

He pulled himself free of her grasp and then grabbed her hand. They ran for a few seconds before Taq pulled her hand free and began breaking into a sprint. She easily got ahead of him, as plasma fire flew after them.

"I still blame you for this," Taq shouted at him as they ran. "Just so you know!"

"Blame me all you want, just run!" Zek shouted, pulling his plasma pistol out as he spoke.

He fired back at their pursuers as they tried to get back to the markets. Taq could only groan at her predicament. Everything had just literally blown up in her face. Her plans thrown out the airlock. Worst of all though, she was now forced to rely on Zek to save her ass. This day was now a total fuck up and it was just going to keep spiraling out of control from here on. Snarlbeak knew why this pyramid was so valuable. He'd tear the Hollow apart just to get it back, along with anyone who tried to keep it from him.

* * *

AN: Bit of a hiatus, but we're back people! I hope you understand, my attempts to make a buffer ended up getting stalled due to, well, a chapter being longer than I thought. However, now I felt ready to upload this. The Hollow at last. I know you're probably a little angry at the cliffhanger, but that was unavoidable. This chapter itself was getting long and needed to be cut down. However I think it came out wonderfully and I'm very proud of my work here today. I hope you enjoyed it too. Please do leave a review if you want and check out my blog for behind the scenes details. Link in the profile for those interested.

Come back next time, hopefully sooner, when you can read the thrilling conclusion to our heroes' adventure on the Hollow. See ya then.


	6. Escape from the Hollow

**Chapter Five: Escape from the Hollow**

 _In a World of Thieves, the only Final Sin is Stupidity_

 _-Hunter S. Thompson_

As soon as the shooting started, the crowded market cleared out, not in any orderly fashion or completely, but enough that Zek and Taq could keep running without running over people constantly. Lurz and his entourage had less trouble finding them though, so it was a double edged sword of sorts. As the plasma kept getting closer, Taq ran into a storefront, Zek close behind. Sadly it wasn't a weapons store, just miscellaneous tech shop. Bits and pieces of stripped terminals, computers and other hardware hung on the walls or were scattered across old tables. The owner, cowering behind the counter poked his head up slightly at Zek and Taq as plasma bolts hit their cover.

"Say, uh, since you're in here," he began. "You two looking for some computer upgrades? Got some nice transistors in from my supplier this morning."

"Does it look like we're shopping here?" Zek asked scowling.

"Come on, man, help a bird out," he asked pleadingly. "My mate is really ragging on me for not living up to my end of the income. I need to make a sale or I'm out of the nest!"

"I'm being shot at by a rival pirate gang!" Zek demanded to know. "Why the fuck do you think this is my problem?"

The door way was suddenly lit up by needle rounds striking their cover, as well as Carbine rounds. Taq growled aloud in frustration.

"Screw this! We gotta move!"

She reached into her satchel and grabbed a plasma grenade she was keeping inside. She activated it and tossed the explosive at the side of the store. The explosion ripped open a hole in the storefront, destroying a ton of merchandise in the process. She and Zek made a run through the hole while it was still smoking, the owner bemoaning the damage to his place of business.

"Oh no, not again!" He shouted in anguish. "That's the seventh time this month! Why does no one listen to the 'No Grenades' sign!?"

Taq and Zek squeezed through the container spaces and forced themselves to the other side. Across from them were a row of vendor stalls. Not much, but better than being out in the open. They ran towards them, just as they heard the clattering of metal above and behind them. Lurz and his posse were climbing over the containers just to keep after them.

Just as they made it to the vendor stalls, the plasma fire renewed. Now under fire, they both slid over the nearest counter. Plasma bolts smashed into food and trinkets, as Taq and Zek kept their heads low. There were a few remaining sellers with them, busy trying to save their inventory or gathering whatever valuables they had been offered in payment for that day. One was trying to stuff silver chips into his pockets, both from his stall and a rival's next door that had been abandoned.

"I always hated that creepy Ibie'shan," Taq growled. "Had nightmares of him cornering me in a dark alley once or twice."

She looked to Zek incredulously.

"None of them involved you though, so reality is infinitely worse," she told him scowling.

"Hey, you're the one who decided to double cross fucking Snarlbeak," Zek reminded her, more defensive than before. "So maybe stop blaming me for every little thing that's gone wrong today."

A plasma bolt sliced through a corner of the stall, causing it to tip slightly. Taq groaned in frustration slightly, clawing at her face slightly.

"Fine," she shouted in frustrated admission. "Coming here was a big gamble and it's gone up in smoke, you happy now?"

"Still being shot at, so no," Zek answered looking around frantically. "Relax though, I'm still getting you out of this."

Not that she had a choice, it was either take his help at this point or let Zhoc's men fill her with plasma. She didn't want him to get any ideas though.

"This isn't going to change anything," she told him straight up. "We're not getting back together, not even for 'Thank-You' Sex. Understand?"

"What about just showing me your ass?" He asked crassly. "Is that off the table?"

She made a suggestive strangling gesture as she growled at him. At that second, several needler rounds hit their stand, one almost impaling Zek through the side of his head.

"We'll work out the details later," he decided. "We gotta get to my ship!"

Zek finally spotted what he had been looking for, a Jappa Fruit that had been knocked off the stand. He grabbed it, jumped up briefly and tossed it. It smacked one of Lurz's posse in the face, taking a little fire off of them for a bit while he was blinded. Zek and Taq then crawled behind the vendor stands as plasma, carbine and needler shots continued to chase after them.

"You realize they probably know that the _Serpent_ is our only shot of getting out of here, right?" Taq asked as they wormed across the floor.

"Shit, you're right," Zek said, smacking his head in realization. "I need to warn Retz, tell him a shitstorm is coming his way."

Zek got on his communicator and contacted his friend. As he did, a melon exploded above him, pouring fruit guts onto him and Taq. He wiped some of it off his face and ate it, smacking his beak as he did.

"Hmm, nice and ripe," he said.

That was when the call got picked up.

"Retz," Zek shouted into the communicator. "We got a problem!"

* * *

"Oh really?" Retz responded, trying to shout over the loud klaxon alarms echoing throughout the docks. "Here I was thinking that this panic had nothing to do with you. Wishful thinking, I know."

" _Will you stop being a smartass and listen?"_ Zek asked snarling through the radio. _"Zhoc's people are probably already on their way! Lock down our shit and hold them off until I get there."_

"Way ahead of you," Retz assured. "Try not to get shot out there."

Retz dropped the call and he could already feel Garrus and Varvok's eyes on him. He didn't bother turning around for that reason, that and he was watching the area around their dry dock clear out considerably. The sudden evacuation of kig-yar did not go unnoticed by either Garrus or Varvok either.

"I take it they're all leaving because of whatever trouble Zek's caused," Garrus said in the most monotone voice he could muster.

"Thank you for stating the obvious," Retz mumbled aloud. "For the record, I have no idea what is going on. This was not something I planned for and I don't think Zek did either."

"Well at least we're not in danger on purpose," Garrus said sarcastically. "That makes this so much less terrible."

"We can sort this out later," Varvok stated plainly. "Right now, we should break out some of the weapons we purchased and get our people in defensive positions."

Garrus still looked cross, but he did agree with Varvok regardless of his current feelings. He nodded to the batarian and looked to Retz.

"Have we loaded those rare weapons you promised yet?" He asked him.

"I believe they're over there," Retz responded pointing to a set of crates a few feet away. "And don't worry about defenses, I've already sent snipers to several positions up top. They should be able to spot any trouble coming in."

"Good, better than nothing," Garrus said quickly before turning to Varvok. "Have your men set up some crates as barricades, I'll have my team help."

"I'm on it," Varvok assured before taking off.

As Garrus went off in his own direction, Retz stood his ground. He activated his shield gauntlets and took out his dual plasma pistols. He took position near a spare loader and prepared himself.

" _We have some armed customers heading our way,"_ a voice chirped over his comm. He recognized it as one of their snipers up high.

"Don't give away your position," he cautioned. "Wait for them to get boxed in."

The armed kig-yar soon came into view, rounding a small ship parts shop nearby. They were packing plasma rifles, uncommon for most kig-yar. Definitely Snarlbeak's people, he liked his men to pack sidearms with more punch. Problem with a plasma rifle though was it was hard for anyone who wasn't a sangheili to hold it in one hand. It was a lot heavier than a plasma pistol and lacked accuracy at longer ranges. A kig-yar couldn't carry it and hold a shield, sacrificing defense when the enemy was closer to you. With a Carbine you could at least keep some distance between you and them.

Zhoc's people didn't seem to care about that, which meant this was probably going to get real bloody and real dirty. The last thing Retz wanted was close quarters brawl, especially when they lacked proper cover. Worse, he suspected these guys were just the first probing wave.

" _I'm seeing more guys taking up positions near the dry dock,"_ warned another sniper through the comm. _"Carbines and Beam Rifles mostly."_

"Stay hidden and let them expose themselves first," Retz ordered. "They'll reveal their positions and we can taken them down quickly."

Retz moved out of cover as the first group of Zhoc's people approached. They stopped about a good ten or so feet from him, their weapons raised slightly.

"Something the matter, friends?" He asked them from afar.

"You know what's the matter," growled the leader of the group. "Tell your people to stand down and we might let you live. Tell us where Zek is and we'll even consider letting you leave. Snarlbeak doesn't want any of you."

"Afraid that's out of the question," Retz informed him. "Zek just gave your boss payment for our new slipspace drive. Now you're attacking us. How are your other customers going to feel about that rate of turn around? This is not good for business."

"Zek should've stayed out of Snarlbeak's business," the kig-yar with the plasma rifle replied. "We wouldn't be having this conversation if he had. Now tell your men to stand down."

Retz just chuckled, a sinister grin growing on his face as his eyes scanned the area around him..

"Problem with that threat," he told them, his fingers reaching towards the triggers. "You have no leverage."

The leader kig-yar growled in disgust and raised his weapon.

"Screw it, just kill them al-"

The lead kig-yar's head exploded as a powerful shot from a Widow Rifle rang out. Legion, who had been hiding behind some boxes of to the side for awhile now, had scored a great hit. Before Zhoc's remaining men could figure out what happened, the bright blast of a focus beam cut down a second of them with a shot to the sternum. It had come from Garrus' position closer to the ship, where several of the crates had now been turned into barricades. The turian had apparently found the Focus Rifles. Retz admired his good taste in long range weaponry.

Between the two shots, Retz ran at Zhoc's men. His plasma pistols were already charging to near full as he closed on them. He raised them up and fired two fully charged blasts into two separate enemies. They took the blasts straight to faces, collapsing as the plasma burned through to their brains. The last two of Zhoc's advance squad tried to aim at him, but Retz avoided their wild shots. The plasma rifles made them look scary, but they were no sangheili, it wasn't a gun made for them and their inexperience showed.

Retz managed to roll towards one's back and elbow him in the spine. His cry of pain was followed by a bolt shot to the upper back. He then turned on the last of them, punching him in the face before he could fire another burst of bolts. He struck again, this time with the blunt force of his shield gauntlets before kicking the fool to the ground. Retz then fired a flurry of shots into the downed kig-yar's body.

That was when enemy carbines opened up. Retz deflected the first with his gauntlets and started making his way back to cover. It was slow going as he had to keep his gauntlets up to deflect the shots. That and he had to watch for Beam Rifle shots aimed for his head. He ducked one and jumped away from another, both missing him harmlessly. He had to keep facing the enemy though, just long enough for him to get close to the loader again. Then he broke into a run, made a hard turn and slid back into safety.

He had done his job though, acting as live bait for the snipers. Already he could hear his own men firing back, the positions of the enemy marksmen exposed when they tried to kill the lone target they could see. It was an old trick, one he perfected with Zek on quite a few smuggling operations that had turned sour. It was good to know it still worked.

As he was settling into his cover, Legion appeared beside him. The geth was reloading his Widow and activating his combat drone.

"Enemy communications have been intercepted," the machine reported. "Two more squads are approaching this position from several angles. Others are currently en route."

"Oh good, more party guests," Retz groaned aloud sardonically. "I really was worried this would be a rather painless uneventful trip to the Hollow."

"We detect that your statement is insincere as well as self-deprecating," the geth reported.

Retz frowned slightly at the synth's comment. Carbine fire was hitting their loader and Beam Rifle shots were whizzing over their heads. He really didn't want to be stuck with a clueless machine in the middle of this mess.

"It's called sarcasm, robot," he informed him in a very monotone manner.

"We are aware of this organic concept," Legion assured. "We were simply confirming that this was indeed the case. We would have to classify you as mentally deficient if you favored this current scenario in any fashion."

Legion sent the drone off to start killing the enemy and began firing back on them himself. Retz felt weird, was that how robots told jokes? He couldn't be sure, he hadn't really met many synthetic life forms in his life to create a consensus. Oh well, he thought, at least he was a good shot. He joined the machine in the defense of the docks, firing on enemy positions scattered across the area. Retz hoped that Zek would be here soon, they could not fight off every pirate on the Hollow forever.

* * *

Plasma bolts continued to rain down on them, ripping their current stall apart bit by bit. Zek tired firing through a hole one of the shots had created, managing to kill one of their attackers with a clean hit. Taq for her part had her needler out, but could barely get a shot off with all the fire hitting them.

"We are going to get massacred out here," she told Zek. "Seriously, we're too exposed."

"You don't think I already know that?" Zek growled back.

Problem was they were pretty much pinned down, so running was a lot harder then it should be. He considered activating his wrist shield, but with all this fire it probably wouldn't last long. They needed to get out of here. There were some stairs a few feet away from them leading up to some proper storefronts. Chances were they'd bring them up a level where they could probably try and lose them. Problem was getting there in one piece.

Peeking over the top of the stall, he spotted something behind a few of Zhoc's men. A small storefront with some plasma cells on sale, what luck. Zek charged up his plasma pistol and looked to Taq.

"Cover your ears," he told her.

He jumped up for a brief second long, enough to fire off a shot. It flew straight into the plasma cells, causing them to go off in a fiery blue explosion. A few of the attackers were thrown to the ground or burned by the flames.

"Alright, move!" Zek shouted.

He activated his wrist shield, hoping it would stay alive long enough to get them across the street. He ran out, Taq rushing after him. They raced across the street, Lurz screaming aloud and shooting at them as they did. Taq fired off some needles, hitting Lurz with a few. The brute of a kig-yar just roared and continued firing, pounding Zek's shield with Carbine shots. Zek went to fire back, but his plasma pistol didn't shoot. He looked at the gauge and mentally slapped himself. The battery was dead.

"Shit."

They managed to get across the street and reached the stairs. They were in relative safety behind the corner of a store next to steps, but Zek suspected Lurz had seen his gun fail to fire. They were a gun short now, never good in a firefight. Taq wasn't happy either.

"You forgot to recharge your pistol, didn't you?" She asked scowling at him.

"I had a long night and a bit of hangover," he tried to explain. "I didn't expect to get involved in a damn gun fight today, give me a break."

"I'd like to, I really would," Taq told him through gritted teeth. "But then I'd be lugging around a dumbass with a broken limb, not ideal in this situation."

Fire started hitting their cover and the duo now rushed up the stairs at full speed. Their attackers weren't far behind, racing up the steps after them. Taq turned briefly to fire back at them, but she quickly found a better target to shoot at.

Above the pursuers were some large signs advertising nearby stores or products. She fired at one of these and the exploding needles ripped it from it's mooring, sending it hurtling down onto one of Zhoc's men. The kig-yar's skull was caved in by an ad for some meat shack and it's twenty percent off special. His body and the sign fell back and tripped one of his comrades giving chase. Taq fired her needler again at another sign, this one was longer and spanned the width of the stairway. Her shots damaged a corner of the sign and sent it swinging into another of Zhoc's lackeys. It smashed him against a nearby wall, taking him out of the pursuit.

They reached the top of the steps, finding a few more stalls crowding the small landing along with a few other storefronts as suspected. They also found two more kig-yar with shields of their own charging around the corner up ahead. Both Taq and Zek dove to ground and plasma fire slashed through the air.

"Damn it!" Zek growled as he pulled himself up into cover. "They're friggin everywhere!"

That was when he spotted a hover cart loaded with fruit. He opened up the panel on the back that housed the anti-gravity controls. After ripping out a few wires he got behind the cart and kicked it with both of his legs. The cart flew forwards, it's safety systems compromised by Zek's tampering. It raced into the kig-yar in front of them and smashed through their shields. Both of the rival pirates were run down by the runaway cart, one of them being rammed into a wall.

Zek grinned at his handiwork and looked to Taq. She did not look as impressed.

"Stop being proud of yourself and move!" She ordered.

She was already out of cover and running again. Zek sighed and followed after her, but he stopped long enough to grab the plasma pistol of one of the cart's victims. He checked the battery first, good near full charge.

"Guess you won't need this anyway," he told the dead kig-yar squeezed between the wall and the cart. "Thanks, bud."

He could hear more of Zhoc's men coming up the steps. As they rushed out into the open, Zek fired at a nearby transformer against a wall. It exploded, sending electrical sparks and flames flying into the faces of his attackers. He then continued after Taq, heading up to the next level and out of the markets.

* * *

Garrus knew this was going to go south at some point. This place was too much like Omega for things to remain easygoing. He was just surprised it took this long. He had always been wary of Zek's people, not because of the fact they were former enemies, but because of who they were. They weren't exactly noble individuals, they were criminals and seemingly proud of it. Shepard had hopes he could turn them around, get them on their side of the war. Garrus was less optimistic, he knew people like Zek, he'd been stuck dealing with them practically all his life. He and his pirates were probably less vicious, bloodthirsty and cruel, but it didn't make them any less of what they were, crooks with a hustle to work.

Was he being unfair? Maybe, but it didn't change the reality this pirate port represented. Just like Shepard couldn't change the fact that this pirate life was ingrained in Zek and his men. Not that it mattered, as Garrus now found himself relying on these very pirates to cover his back and get him off this moon alive.

The Jackals had at least set up a solid defense, positioning themselves around the perimeter, securing all paths to the ship. The snipers up top provided good support fire and acted as terrific spotters. Retz kept reorganizing defenders as their reports came in, warning them of incoming attack groups. Varvok's own forces made things slightly easier, supplementing the defense where needed. One batarian with a grenade launcher managed to fire a perfect shot that took out a group of enemy pirates using a storefront as a firing position. The explosion sent their bodies flying out the window in a heap.

Garrus, for his part, was doing his best to hold the fort down from his position. The Focus Rifle he found was exceedingly powerful, able to take out most anything in a single shot. He could also hold down the trigger for a continuous stream, allowing him to kill two bad guys in close succession to each other. Wasn't as easy to do on the Jackals with plasma shields. The beam damaged those, but more or less got absorbed. Garrus didn't want to waste power trying to take one down so he had started to avoid them. Besides, Grunt had them covered.

The krogan was of course near the front lines, using his Claymore shotgun to blow apart any Jackals stupid enough to get close. If they had a shield he charged out and trampled them, almost ripping their arms off just to get behind their protective shell. This of course forced Garrus to cover him, like he was doing now. He had to kill one Jackal who was charging his plasma pistol with a quick controlled blast. Then he had to take down a second with a Carbine aiming from atop a storage crate. The hostile pirate fell to the ground, still smoking from the energy stream that burned through his torso.

Unfortunately, while Grunt escaped back to cover to smash another day, Garrus hadn't been paying attention to his own safety. He was pretty close to the front himself and one enemy Jackal, armed with an energy cutlass, had spotted him. He bolted his way through the lines, rushing at the turian. Garrus turned to fire on him, but didn't have to. A hand appeared out of nowhere and punched the ravenous alien bird in the jaw. The enemy pirate fell to the floor as Kasumi materialized and rushed into cover beside Garrus.

"I should really start keeping a tally of how many times I save you guys like that," she laughed.

"Please don't tell me you're enjoying this clusterfuck," Garrus asked, his frustration with the situation apparent.

"I'm in the middle of a pirate gang shootout," Kasumi reminded him. "It's hard not to find it a little exciting."

Well he didn't, not in the slightest. They were getting hit on three sides by these guys. The only reason it wasn't four was because their backs were to their only means of escape, the _Fallen Serpent_. They were not going to hold out if this continued. He called up Shepard again, which he had already done just awhile ago at the first sign things were going south.

"Commander," he said growling. "Please tell me your Plan B is almost here! Because we're going to get murdered if we're stuck here any longer."

" _Don't worry, Garrus,"_ Shepard's voice stated calmly. _"Just keep watching the skies. It'll be there."_

Garrus hated when Shepard was cryptic. It was not nearly as cute or charming as he probably thought it was. However, in this case it seemed fairly accurate. As moments later, something flew into the docking bay and over their heads. It was a shuttle from the _Normandy_ , flying fast and low. It's doors suddenly opened over the enemy lines and out jumped, who else, but Samara.

The Asari slammed into the ground, sending a wave of biotic energy resonating out from her. Shockwaves knocked back three enemy Jackals, sending them into stalls or boxes nearby. As she stood up, weapon in hand she glared at the stunned pirates around her.

"I am usually more tactful in these situations for fear of harming innocents," she called out to the pirates. "There is no such issue here. Lay down your weapons or die."

"Fuck you, whatever you are!" Shouted back one of the pirates.

He got hit by a reave attack that burned his insides before Samara filled him with bullets from her assault rifle. She sent a throw attack at another Jackal as she quickly took up cover with the others. The shuttle remained overhead and sniper fire could be heard coming from it.

" _Garrus,"_ Thane's voice contacted the turian through his earpiece. _"I am providing additional sniper support from the shuttle. Samara and I will do our best to assist the defense."_

"Good to hear, Thane," Garrus said with a sigh of relief. "See if you can take out any bad guys our snipers can't see from their nests. Would really take the pressure off them."

" _I will do what I can,"_ Thane promised.

Garrus was happy to see the reinforcements, but he knew it wouldn't matter in the long run if Zek didn't get here. He supposed he could try to force Retz to abandon him, but he doubted that would work. Besides, despite Zek's less than reputable behavior, it didn't feel right just leaving him here to get killed by whatever trouble he had stepped in. He'd hold off on doing anything drastic for the moment, but he really hoped Zek wasn't taking any detours on his way back here.

* * *

Zek and Taq burst through the door of the rundown bar, although no one seemed to give them much notice. Either everyone was too drunk to care or they were just generally apathetic to anyone entering the establishment. Zek didn't care, he just wanted to get lost in the crowd of drunkards and slip out the back. Hopefully Lurz would lose them and they could make their way to the docks unmolested after that.

"We can slip out the back," Zek told Taq. "Come on."

Taq followed closely, both of them hoping they wouldn't attract much attention. Lucky for them most of the attentive parts of the bar were too busy at a table of some sort watching weird little rodent like creatures running a maze.

"Come on you little bastard, I got a hundred creds riding on you!" One shouted. "No! Don't look at me! Run the fucking maze!"

As they passed by the bar one of the patrons threw up near Taq's feet. He said he was sorry and then passed out on the counter. The bartender just shook his head.

"Ugh, again?" He asked shaking his head. "One of these days his stomach is going to come up along with everything else."

He grabbed one of the bottles that was still relatively full and looked to the backroom.

"Hey! Vux!" He called. "Gop just drank himself into another coma! Call him a shuttle and get him back to his shipmaster, will ya? I gotta clean up his mess!"

That was when the door burst open again. Lurz was back, wish fresh meat by his side. One of the bouncers moved over to confront him.

"Hey buddy, you can't just charge in with your gun drawn," he warned. "You need probable cause, house rules."

Lurz just snarled and pointed his Carbine at the bouncer, who quickly backed off.

"Okay, okay, be cool," he said nervously. "There's no trouble, no trouble."

Zek knew it wouldn't be long until they got spotted. Worse yet, he had no time to think, so he improvised. He grabbed the bottle from the barkeep, quickly slapped down a credit pack and took out his own plasma pistol.

"Keep the change!" He said frantically, charging his plasma pistol.

"Zek," Taq said wide-eyed in fright. "Whatever you're doing, don't do it."

"Sorry, doing," he replied and he shoved the end of the charging plasma pistol into the bottle.

The super heated plasma ignited the ichor and a small flickering flame burst out of the top of the bottle. Zek, not waiting for Taq to try and stop him, lurched his arm back and then tossed the bottle itself at Lurz's posse. The bottle smashed against the ceiling and flames rained down around the hulking Ibie'shan and his comrades. They tucked themselves under their plasma shields to escape from catching alight themselves The bartender screamed in terror, as did everyone else in the establishment. Kig-yar began running for an exit and in the chaos, Zek and Taq made a run for the back.

Lurz forced his way through the flames engulfing the front entrance as the bartender and his employees activated the fire suppression system. Foam and water sprayed out from the ceiling to dampen the flames, but the panic was well under way now. As a consequence, a number of kig-yar ran into Lurz and his squad in their bid to escape the bar. Lurz grabbed one unfortunate kig-yar, who collided against his right arm, by his neck and hurled him over the bar into some ichor bottles. He growled in anger as his signaled his men to force their way through the chaos.

Other members of the pursuing pirates managed to avoid the panic completely by jumping on nearby tables. One of these table jumpers spotted Zek and Taq pushing through the crowd and he lunged at them with an energy cutlass. Zek managed to activate his plasma machete in time to block the strike. But the force of the lunge sent him to the floor.

"I got him!" The attacker cried out. "He's over here! They're over-"

A bottle smashed against the back of attacker's head before he was unceremoniously kicked off of Zek entirely by Taq. She threw away the rest of the broken bottle and grabbed the attacker's cutlass for herself.

"Might need this," she reasoned, before helping Zek to his feet.

By now though, Lurz had spotted them. He hiss at them both and began firing his Carbine. Taq and Zek ran for the back door, passing a few electronic gambling machines along the wall. One was still being operated by a kig-yar, despite all the insanity raging around him.

"Everyone shut up already!" He cried aloud at the screams of terror. "I am trying to win me a damn jackpot!"

He dropped credit chip on the floor and bent down to pick it up. That was when one of Lurz's stray shots hit the machine and a whole mess of credit chips flooded out of the machine. The lucky gambler grinned as he dug his grubby claws into the pile of riches.

"I knew this machine was lucky!"

While the machine continued to spew money, Zek and Taq quickly raced out of the back door. Zek shot the electronic lock with his plasma pistol at full blast, melting it. For good measure he then pushed a large dumpster in front of it, just to make it harder for anyone who tried following them.

"You could've set both of us on fire!" Taq shouted at him.

"I needed to do something!" Zek responded agitated. "It worked out, didn't it?"

"Whatever," Taq growled back, not caring to argue right now. "How far are we from your ship?"

"Still a ways," Zek admitted. "But I got an idea, we just need to take a shortcut!"

He took off and Taq followed after him.

"I thought the Bar was the shortcut!" She shouted at him.

"Well, this is a shorter shortcut!" Zek insisted.

"That makes no sense!" Taq screamed at him.

As they left the bar behind, something exploded the back door outward and tipped the dumpster over. Lurz lumbered out from the smoke and sniffed the air. He looked in the direction, Zek and Taq ran to and cried back to his comrades with an ear-piercing hiss. He knew they could not be allowed to escape, too much was riding on what the female carried and he would get it back to Zhoc no matter the cost.

* * *

Samara remained outside the main perimeter, firing at incoming hostiles along the main path to the _Fallen Serpent._ As a group of pirates rushed forward, Samara lashed out with a shockwave that sent them hurtling into the air. As they were lifted up, she fired into them with her assault rifle. She then quickly rolled over to another container a Jackal with a Carbine fired near her flank. He was standing atop an old building's roof, probably a holdover from the moon's mining days. She lurched out just in time to send a throw attack his way. It blasted him off the roof and he screamed as he hurtled away.

To Samara this was almost an ideal mission. This pirate den was full of the guilty and the unjust. In a number of cases, being a Justicar meant you had to ignore whatever grey areas of morality existed. You had accept that those who did wrong had to be punished regardless of their personal reasons. There was some room to interpret the appropriate punishment, but sometimes there was no room to maneuver. She hated thinking about how her Code might force her to kill someone who was a loving father for example.

Here though? Everyone here was a guilty of something. They were pirates who preyed on the weak and slaughtered others for were no mixed feelings, her mind was at ease when gunning them were unjust through and through, her Code demanded their deaths. Her earlier offer of surrender was to assure herself of the necessity of self-defense, removing any last qualms she may have held. Places like this Hollow were part of the reason she became a Justicar, second only to one other that had been resolved.

When Shepard had asked her to take part in this mission, she did not hesitate to accept the burden. She felt somewhat guilty for anticipating things going awry, but then again she was not too sorry. It was an inevitability in her mind. This moon bred crime and corruption, things were bound to go wrong just coming near it. If she could she'd cleanse this place herself. Maybe not everyone here deserved justice to be delivered upon them, but she imagined there were few who did not deserve it in some manner.

If she had any regrets about this assignment it was that she would not be able to destroy every criminal low-life in this The second regret was that she was forced to protect Zek's pirates in the course of this. In her opinion they had signed their own death warrants when they chose this profession. She did not really care if any of Zek's crew fell to these hostile pirates. As far as she was concerned, it was only natural that they destroy each other.

Her crew were among those pirates though and for the moment their survival depended on the _Fallen Serpent's_ crew living through this. Garrus was a former vigilante, but he believed in justice almost as fervently as any Justicar. Grunt was the product of a monster, but under Shepard's care he had refrained from doing anything against the Code. The krogan, despite his violent nature, was innocent. Legion was a bit strange, as the morality of a machine wasn't as explicit within the boundaries of the Code. The synthetic did attempt to act morally in it's actions. Kasumi, for all her misdeeds, was not out to kill her opponents if she could avoid it. Her recompence would come eventually, but Samara did not wish her death.

Her Oath to Shepard demanded she protect them, but in another sense she wanted to protect them. They were part of the crew, although she hesitated to say friends. They were good people, despite their faults. The Code always said they should stand with such individuals, keep them safe. She would not fail in that.

Samara fired again at a group enemy pirates armed with shields. Her shots bounced off, but she continued to suppress them. They fired back with plasma bolts which struck against her container. Even just a near miss was enough to damage her barriers, so she ducked down again. Luckily, she had help in this endeavor. Kasumi was sneaking up through some nearby stalls, her cloak was off but she was keeping a relatively low profile regardless. She did not use her tools as a crutch, Ms. Goto was skilled in stealth whether or not she was invisible to the naked eye.

Realizing she still needed some help getting into position though, Samara leaned out again and fired her assault rifle off at the Jackals approaching them. They blocked the shots and turned to face her. When they did, Kasumi rushed up a bit further to the next stall and activated her omni-tool. An overload blast knocked out the power for both of hostile Jackals' plasma shields. They had no idea what had just happened and probably never would find out. Samara quickly unleashed several quick bursts from her assault rifle, killing one of the pirates. She then used a throw attack on the second to send the little ugly bird flying into a stall at top speed.

With both those threats neutralized, Samara moved to another position further up behind broken down old shuttle that had long since been stripped for parts. A beam blast nearly took her head off as she got into position, a sniper was about somewhere, one she couldn't see. Luckily she had a few more eyes than just her own.

"Thane," she spoke through her comm. "Can you see the shooter from your shuttle?"

" _I believe so,"_ the drell answered. _"I need a bead on his location to be certain."_

She would provide it. She moved out briefly into the open and flung a shockwave attack in a general direction. The biotic blast shook through the floor, sending anything untethered to the ground flying. She didn't expect it to hit the Sniper, but she flung it in the general direction. She then ducked back into her cover, just a beam nearly grazed her leg. Her barriers were still damaged by the near miss regardless.

" _I have him,"_ Thane responded instantly.

A few shots rang out above her from the shuttle hovering close by. Samara looked to the craft, knowing the outcome before Thane announced it.

" _Target down,"_ he reported.

That was when plasma fire started hitting the shuttle hard. Apparently, the pirates had realized it was more of a danger than originally expected.

"Thane pull back out of their range," she called up to him through the comm. "We need your eyes to win this day."

" _Pilot is pulling back now,"_ he informed her. _"Find those pirates and take them out for me."_

She was going to do that anyway, but it was good to have it insisted upon regardless. She moved up towards a small warehouse of sorts. Across from her she could see a group of Jackals, all still taking pot shots at the retreating shuttle. She fired on them at once, bringing their attention down on her instead. She ducked back into cover as plasma fire hit the corner of the warehouse. Soon the pirates converged on a better position to continue their assault. Samara realized she would not be able to hit them from here, so she moved back. She'd circle the warehouse and attack from the flank.

She moved along the side, wary of her surroundings as she did. Turning the corner she felt something amiss. Above her came the sound of scampering feet. She turned her gaze skyward, just in time to see a lone Jackal jumping down from above with an energy cutlass in hand. He was coming in too fast to shoot, so she blocked his slash with her rifle and jumped back. The Jackal leapt away, his back against the wall of the warehouse now, his teeth snarling through his disgusting beak.

She didn't wait for him to strike again, she fired at the filthy bird creature with a full burst. He bobbed and weaved away from the shots, trying to close in for an easy slash. Samara simply threw out a biotic punch than sent him hurtling into the wall of the warehouse where she quickly pinned him with her right hand across his throat. The Jackal's right hand held his blade and he attempted to slash her, but she grabbed the arm and squeezed. There was a crack and the Jackal screamed aloud, dropping the blade as the Asari pulled the pirate up along the wall, letting his feet dangle in the air.

"What the fuck are you?" The filthy creature asked as he started to choke in fear.

A question she was familiar with, but only vaguely. Many who asked it were entirely ignorant of her Order, but this creature had never heard of them nor the Asari. If he had, maybe he'd have thought twice about engaging her as he did. Whatever the case, she had a simple answer, which she gave as she released his broken hand and reeled her arm back.

"I am Justicar," she said, serenity and calm washing over her.

Then she pulped his skull through with a single clean biotic blow. Samara let the body fall and resumed her flanking action. She reached an optimal position a few moments later, an abandoned loader across the street and to the left of the stall her enemies were using. She aimed her rifle at the nearest of their number and fired, a clean shot killing her target.

The Jackals turned to face her, but were suddenly blinded by a big flash of light. There was little doubt in Samara's mind as to where it had come from. Kasumi had apparently gotten into her own flanking position, although Samara could scarcely tell where, and was merely waiting for Samara to strike. She used the opportunity provided by the flashbang and sent a shockwave over to the blinded Jackals. They popped up into the air as it struck them and Samara quickly filled them with lead as they fell. Another incursion halted before it ever reached Garrus' position, they were doing well.

" _Samara,"_ Garrus' voice suddenly called out through the comm. _"You and Kasumi get back here, we got a new wave coming in and we could use your help."_

"On our way," she assured the turian.

She quickly jumped up and started running back towards the frontline. Kasumi joined her shortly afterwards, appearing from behind a stack of crates where she had been hiding. She seemed her usual jubilant self. It was hard at times to think that her constant upbeat attitude was foolishness or endearing, but Samara settled on it being a little of both.

"We make a pretty awesome team, huh?" She asked randomly. "I mean, that's a bit weird right? It's cool, but it's weird. A thief and a Justicar, that's like some kind of bizarre buddy comedy vid."

"I would not know," she admitted. "But if you feel it an appropriate analogy, you are free to make it."

"Sweet, I'll pitch it to some studio execs when we get back home," Kasumi shouted happily. "Come on! Lets find more pirates to fight!"

Kasumi took off at a lightening pace and Samara just shrugged as she kept up. She didn't find this as fun as the thief did, but she did admit to finding it satisfying. Not aloud of course, that was unbecoming of a Justicar. Besides, Kasumi would misconstrue the meaning as her having fun, the rest of the crew would never let her live it down if that idea caught on.

* * *

Zek wasn't great at hacking, Retz had always been his go to for that. Lucky for him, Taq knew how to crack into old Forerunner tombs, so really the backdoor to a restaurant's kitchen wasn't much of a big deal. She bypassed the lock and they both made their way inside. It was a bit of a weird shortcut, but once they got through the kitchen and left through the garage where the produce was delivered they had a straight shot to their best chance at escape.

Of course, they picked the worst time to use this as an escape, because it was rush hour. The cooks were all working around a central preparation table, when Zek and Taq charged in. They were apparently preparing stew for the midday patrons. The head of the kitchen didn't seem at all pleased to have interlopers in the middle of service. He scratched himself through his greasy stained apron as he approached them both.

"Who in the fuck are you two?" He demanded to know. "If you want a damn table you should've come in the front."

"We're not here to eat, we'll be out of your quills in a second," Zek assured trying push his way by him.

The cook tried to keep them from getting by him, but he stopped when he saw two armed kig-yar coming up from behind them. More of Lurz's pursuit team no doubt. Zek shoved the flabbergasted cook out of their way and ran through the kitchen. Plasma fire erupted almost at once as he and Taq ran, cooks dropped to the floor or tried to run out the front. No one wanted to get involved in whatever this was. Zek couldn't blame them, considering he hadn't planned on getting involved himself. It was just this was how things had worked out.

Zek grabbed a shard knife left at one of the cooking stations and threw it at one of the shooters. The blade sunk into his shoulder and he collapsed to the floor in pain. His partner charged up at them, shooting wildly at both of them. Taq reacted quickly to his charge, tipping over a nearby pot of boiling water as the pirate got close. The brigand took a full splash to his left side and fell to the floor screaming in agony. Seemingly in the clear, Zek and Taq now ran for the garage, but someone else soon halted them.

Vaulting over the central preparation table, another pirate tackled Zek, pinning him against a stove against the nearby wall. In the attacker's hand, he held a energy shard dagger, pointed at Zek's neck. Both kig-yar struggled to push the dagger forwards or backwards, Zek barely able to keep the blade from piercing his jugular.

"Should've stayed out of Snarlbeak's business," the attacker hissed sinisterly. "Now you're gonna be Razorfin chum!"

Zek looked briefly over to Taq. She was blocking the attack of another attacker with the cutlass she had stolen before. Apparently it was useful. She kicked her attacker in the groin before cutting him down. That's when he saw she was standing beside the stove's heater controls and he got an idea.

"How about grilled pirate instead?" He chided at his attacker.

He kneed his assailant in the groin and quickly jerked him to the right, effectively flipping him over on his side. He smashed the attacker's face into the stove and Taq, sensing what Zek wanted, turned the switch to max. A small red flame jutted out of the heater and the attacking pirate started screaming, the tables now effectively turned. He jumped up, half his face on fire, dropping his dagger. Then Taq grabbed a pan nearby and smacked him across the face one last time for good measure. He dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Okay, that was decent quick thinking," she admitted.

"No time for bathing in my awesome," he told her. "Come on!"

Taq rolled her eyes but followed. When a fourth pursuer tried to charge over the table, she smashed him in the head with the pan. He fell onto a plate of stew beak first. They were almost to the garage, a small hover tray of cutlery and dishes in their path, when yet another group of Lurz's posse burst through a secondary door from the dining room. Zek grabbed the nearby hover tray and pushed it towards their attackers. Before they could even fire off a shot, the tray bulldozed into them, sending dishes and utensils flying and forcing them back out into the dining room in a heap.

Zek and Taq ran through the garage, barging out through it's back door and running out onto the new street. Zek knew better than to think they had lost Lurz at this point. To get away, they'd need something faster than their own two feet. Thankfully, he knew they weren't too far from something that could provide them with just what they needed.

"Just around this corner and we'll be there!" He told Taq. "Move!"

"You better know where you're going," Taq said, scampering after him.

* * *

Holding this line was proving to be an issue, as it seemed every slimy crook within this miserable moon was out to get them. Garrus had already run dry on his Focus Rifle and had switched back to his regular Viper. Still effective as ever, but without the advantage of a continuous sustained beam. He took aim at one of enemy Beam Rifle shooters, pinning down some of Varvok's men along the line. One well placed shot and the sniper tumbled off his perch with a fresh hole in his head.

Thankfully he wasn't the only sniper. Between him, the _Fallen Serpent's_ shooters, plus Thane and Legion with their marksmanship, they had effectively stalled out the enemy. They weren't trying to force their way forward anymore. They seemed more content to just try and whittle the defenses down from afar. It was more or less working, quite a few of the _Serpent's_ shore crew fell under continued fire. This siege was going to break them eventually.

Of course, they apparently had another problem, that Retz quickly made clear as he rushed up to the Turian's side. Varvok also joined them, reloading his weapon as he plopped down beside the two.

"The ship is fully functional and ready to go, but we can't leave," Retz explained. "Docking clamps won't disengage. Someone has rescinded our exit privileges. I'm guessing it's Snarlbeak."

"You still haven't really explained who that is," Garrus told him.

"Well we're a bit busy for backstory, Vakarian," Retz growled and pointed upwards. "Look, we need to get up to this drydock's control room. We can cancel the no-fly order from there and release the clamps. If we don't do it now, then even if Zek shows up in the next two seconds, we can't leave period. Better to deal with this before it becomes an issue."

"Fair enough," Varvok agreed. "Won't there be a crew in that control room though?"

"We may have to force them to follow our instructions, but they will with a little prying," Retz explained. "No amount of credits is worth dying over something like this. They'll fold, I'm sure of it."

Garrus looked up to where Retz had pointed to earlier and spotted the control room. It was relatively high up, but reachable. It didn't sound like they had much choice, if they didn't go now they'd have to later. He preferred to not have to end up doing it when Zek showed up and spending more time fighting off this rival gang. Time to multi-task then.

"Someone has to stay here and hold the for while the rest of us head up," he reasoned.

He didn't have to look far for a volunteer, as a powerful throw attack obliterated the nearest hostile position by sending both enemy pirates flying into the side of a container. Samara moved up, firing short bursts from her assault rifle with Grunt close to her side.

"Go, Garrus," she told him. "I shall keep the defenses firm in your absence."

He didn't feel like arguing, so he just nodded and let Retz take point. Varvok's people provided cover fire as they ran out beyond the lines for a few feet, making headway for a small building nearby. Varvok moved the old broken door for it aside and they hurried inside. Retz quickly moved them through the corridors, both his plasma pistols out and at the ready. It wasn't out of the range of possibility that a few of Snarlbeak's men were lurking nearby and guarding the approach to the control room.

"We need to cut through some of these old port authority buildings," Retz explained as they slunk through the old halls. "The conning tower is just through here."

They made their way outside again and found a small courtyard. Unfortunately they also found a hastily set up Shade Turret and a small group of armed guards between them and the tower itself. A small problem to be sure, but it confirmed that there were probably more of them inside already.

"I'll take out the gunner," Garrus told the others. "You make a run for the tower while I cover you."

Varvok and Retz moved up to a small wall while Garrus took position behind an old stripped bare shuttle. Not great cover, but he wouldn't be there long. He took aim at the head of the Jackal gunner, who thankfully hadn't spotted them yet. One good shot and the ugly bird toppled out of his gunner seat and collapsed to the ground.

Not even a second after the shot rang out, Varvok jumped from his cover and started firing. Retz joined in and they both charged the enemy position together. Garrus only hanged back for a moment, firing one more shot at a Jackal trying to get to the Shade turrent before moving up to wall himself. When he got there, Retz and Varvok were already halfway to the conning tower. Garrus looked through his crosshairs again and took aim at one of the Jackals armed with a Carbine. He fired at the hostile pirate, putting a bullet through his eye. After that, he switched to his assault rifle and tried to catch up to Varvok and Retz.

Varvok had already opened up his assault rifle sustained rifle fire, spraying the enemy lines with bullets. Retz had taken up a kneeling position against a wall and was firing off quick burst from his plasma pistol one after the other. By the time Garrus reached them, they had already killed at least three of the enemy number.

Snarlbeak's forces tried to rally, even tried to reach the Shade, but Varvok beat them to it. He tossed a plasma grenade towards them and it landed beneath the turret's legs. When it exploded, it sent the gun toppling over onto one of the nearby Jackal pirates. Garrus fired a concussive shot to follow up the attack, flooring one stunned Jackal. The line was now broken, and the trio pushed forward. What remained of the outer guards tried to run for the conning tower, but they didn't make it far. Varvok gunned them down before they even reached the door.

"Just a few flights and we'll be at the control room," Retz assured. "Come!"

Following Retz inside, they began bounding up the steps. Of course, Garrus had expected to encounter more resistance and they did. A small barricade had been set up on one of the stair landings and their occupants started firing down at them as they approached. Retz, who was still on point, blocked the shots with his shield gauntlets, while Garrus laid down fire on their position. When they were dealt with, they pushed the barricade aside and kept moving.

The next landing had the same problem, but rather than deal with it in the same manner, Varvok elected to force their way through. He tossed another plasma grenade up along the steps as he took cover around he corner of the stairwell. The enemy Jackals tried to run, but there was little room to move in such an enclosed space. The explosion tore apart the barricade and the Jackals defending it. They continued on their way.

The last few steps until the top were soon crowded with Jackals with energy shields. They were not as easy to dislodge. Retz fired an overcharged plasma bolt at one, taking out his shield, and Garrus followed it up with a quick burst. But while that enemy went down, a second took his place and the group of shield bearers began opening fire. Garrus decided to screw it and activated an overcharge attack. The blast short circuited the equipment, turning off the shields. That was when Varvok struck. Taking out his shotgun, he blew the Jackals away, even as they tried to race up the steps to safety.

The last of their number fell at the top as Varvok put a final shot into him. It looked like their path to the control room was clear. Unfortunately, as they tried to round the corner, plasma fire nearly took sliced apart Retz. He jumped back and Garrus took up the corner, peek around it to spy a Plasma turret set up in the hall.

"Another gun," he warned.

"I'll handle this one," Varvok declared with a stiff face.

He powered up his omni-tool and activated the ballistic blades. He then dove out from cover and fired them. They stuck into the turret and the shoulder of the gunner, exploding moments later. The gunner barely had a chance to renew fire, now both he and his weapon were in pieces on the floor.

That obstacle dealt with, Varvok quickly stood up and moved to the door of the control room. He didn't wait for Garrus or Retz to join him, he just placed a charge on the electronic lock. When it detonated, he briskly moved inside, his rifle drawn. There was one armed pirate inside, he shot him without even a second's hesitation. Garrus and Retz got inside after and found the batarian staring down the now very terrified dock workers.

Retz nodded his head, not very surprised at this point by Varvok's proficiency, and moved over to the workers. He now had his own weapon raised to them.

"Rescind the no-fly order," he ordered bluntly.

"Hey, just because you jerks crossed Old Scratch doesn't mean we have to go down with you," the dockmaster claimed. "We're getting paid good money here!"

Retz charged his weapon and pointed it in the bird's face.

"Good enough to get your face melted off?" Retz asked curtly.

The dockmaster backed down instantly, as Retz predicted he would. Garrus wondered if Varvok hadn't made the negotiation a little easier though. It was kinda hard to argue with a bunch of guns stuck in your face. The dockmaster deactivated the docking clamps.

"There," he grumbled. "Locks are off. You can leave whenever."

Retz grinned happily at the dockmaster and then shoved him out of the way of the console. He fired both plasma pistol into it, utterly destroying the controls. Now they couldn't un-rescind the no fly order and they could get back to the fight below.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Retz told the dumbfounded dockmaster as he walked back to the door.

"You know how long it takes to find replacement parts for these old models?!" the dockmaster shouted as they left. "You could've just locked out the console for a couple of hours!"

"That wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying," Retz explained. "Next time, don't cross the _Fallen Serpent_ , for any price or anyone. Bye now."

Retz waved as he exited, leaving a distraught dockmaster to clean up the mess he had just been left.

* * *

Zek finally stopped running when they reached the end of the street. They had reached their destination and Taq looked somewhat impressed even. Before them was a used shuttle lot. Nothing fancy, but certainly faster than trying to get back to the _Serpent_ on foot.

"Okay, I admit it," she told him. "Good idea there. A shuttle is just what we need."

Zek just beamed at her.

"Do I get a thank you kiss?" He asked arching his brow slightly.

Taq's grimace returned instantly.

"You are now pushing it," she scolded him. "Pick a shuttle and let's move."

Zek rushed up to the proprietor, interrupting him in the middle of a sale by tapping on his shoulder.

"Hi, uh, quick question," he began. "What's your fastest model?"

The owner thought for a few moments, rubbing the underside of his beak.

"Huh, I guess it would be the 602-X3," he said, pointing to a shuttle near the end of the lot.

It was a sleek, if rundown looking vehicle. A curved nose, slender chassis and dual drive thrusters at the back. It was a shade of red, although some of it was peeling off and there were bumps and scrapes in he frame. On the plus side, it had some nice tail fins that resembled a Razorfin's tail and the cab had wing doors that folded up.

"Can this thing still fly?" Taq asked, looking at the rundown vehicle.

"Every single one of them can fly, I assure you," the owner claimed. "We can go out for a test flight, if you like?"

Zek looked down the street for a moment and saw that they had run out of time. Lurz was at the corner and he was already hissing aloud, his claw pointed at them as he did. The rest of his posse was close behind, charging at the lot.

"No, it's fine, we'll take it," Zek said frantically.

"Excellent, that will be nine thousand credit chips as down payment and you need to sign this waiver," the owner said, pulling out a datapad. "It says were are not liable if things fall off or the engine explodes. Which is unlikely anyway, I assure you. Also, no refunds."

"No, we're just taking it," Zek explained, pulling out his plasma pistol and pointing it at the man.

The owner just sighed and put his hands up.

"You know, you people could at least just steal the thing from the lot," he grumbled. "Do you have to get my hopes up with every potential big sale?"

"Charge it to Fleetmaster Zhoc," Zek said as he opened the pilot door, his gun still pointed at the owner. "Now deactivate the engine lock already!"

The owner reached in to get a device from his pocket and pressed it. The shuttle's engine lock disengaged and Zek was able to start the craft. As it sprung to life, Taq jumped into the passenger's seat and shut the door. Zek pulled back on the stick and the shuttle lifted off. As it did, it came under fire from Lurz's gang, Carbine and plasma shots striking their vehicle. Zek pushed the shuttle's stick forward and they raced away from the lot.

Lurz growled and clenched his fist and then looked to the owner. He grabbed him by the collar and bared his teeth. The salesman just tried to smile.

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in a new shuttle for yourself?" He asked nervously.

Lurz just placed a needler to the bird's temple. The owner nervously handed over the engine lockout device to the big Ibie'shan.

"What do you know, we're having a clearance sale," he chuckled fearfully.

Lurz dropped him and he motioned the rest of his squad to clamber into any shuttles they could find. The salesman just sat on the ground holding his head in his hands.

"Just great," he sighed. "I can hear the wife now, 'You should've hired the Mgalekgolo Bodyguards like I told you to', nag, nag, just because she runs a successful tech distribution firm she thinks she knows everything."

* * *

Zek raced through the shuttle skyways of the Hollow as fast as he could. It was mostly old mine tunnels or the designated spaces above certain levels. He hoped that enough twists and turns would make it impossible for Lurz to catch up. Somehow he suspected they'd find a way, perhaps because he knew where they were ultimately headed, but that was neither here nor there. He kept his plasma pistol ready just in case they caught up to them.

"You probably won't be able to come back to the Hollow for a while after all this," Taq warned.

"I figured," Zek reasoned, looking about towards the shuttle's sensors. "I have just ruined about four or five businesses today."

"I just want you to know I do appreciate you putting yourself on the line here," she told him sincerely. "Even if it is somewhat your fault, you are doing what you can to get me out of here."

Zek's nervousness vanished for a moment and smiled at her. She quickly grimaced at him in response though, seeing the wheels in his head.

"This doesn't mean I'm forgiving you or that we're getting back together," she stated bluntly.

"Oh come on," Zek pleaded. "What do I gotta do for you to accept I'm actually sorry."

"Zek, you saving me has nothing to do with that," Taq informed him. "I'm grateful you're trying to make it up to me, but it's really not that easy for me to just forgive and forget here."

"Honestly, woman," Zek chided. "I'm risking my life here! What more do you want?"

"I don't want anything," Taq explained. "It's you who wants something. Now I might owe you something in return for this, but not what you're hoping and you need to accept that."

Zek would've continued to argue, if not for the fact the shuttle lurched forward suddenly from a plasma bolt striking their rear. He looked back out the window and saw at least four shuttles pursuing them, kig-yar leaning out the sides and firing.

"We'll table this for now," he growled at Taq.

Then, with his hand still on the control he leaned out the window and started firing back at the pursuing shuttles. Their craft listed to the side, Taq nearly falling over in her seat. Zek continued to fire, even as the shuttle bobbed around erratically. His shots went equally as wild as a result of this, but he did manage to hit one of hostiles. The enemy pirate's body dropped out of the side of the shuttle and crashed to the ground.

"You lunatic, what are you doing?!" Taq shouted as the shuttle lurched about.

"Saving our asses, what does it look like?" He responded angrily.

He continued to fire at their pursuers, although with very limited success. Luckily, his lack of attention on the road didn't help Lurz's gang either, their shots couldn't get a bead either. A few needler rounds stuck themselves into the side of the shuttle, but they missed Zek entirely. In the meantime, Taq tried to steady the shuttle herself, grabbing the controls from her passenger's seat. It was not easy to drive from this position, nor was it any less difficult with Zek's own hand seemingly fighting her for control as well.

"You are making this worse!" Taq shouted at him. "We are going to crash into something!"

"Are not!" Zek argued. "I fly a big old spaceship! I can handle a crappy little old shuttle!"

Zek jerked the control to the right and smashed into the side of a shuttle passing them. Taq was knocked forward by the hit and with her hands on the controls that forced the shuttle to slam into the back of another larger shuttle. That at least evened them out, but Zek nearly fell out of side window from the impact. Taq managed to grab onto his belt before he tumbled out though, pulling him back in slightly. He still kept shooting at the pirates chasing them though.

"You are not hitting shit and we are going to die!" Taq shouted at him. "Let me drive!"

"We are doing fine!" Zek shouted. "Your negative attitude is the only thing not helping!"

"Truck!"

"Why? They're not hitting anywhere near me!" Zek shouted back.

"Not duck! Truck, you idiot! Truck!"

Zek looked forward and saw they were headed straight for a large trucking shuttle in their way. Zek pulled himself back inside the shuttle and moved the stick back hard. The shuttle rose over the truck as it crossed their path. Their bottom chassis was scraped by top of the truck, but they made it through alright. The same could not be said of all the shuttles pursuing them. Three of the vessels managed to fly around the truck without crashing. One did not, colliding head-on with the trucking shuttle's side and exploded.

"Okay, you take the stick," Zek said, still trying to shake off the near brush with death.

He moved over and let Taq take over driving. She began weaving through the traffic of shuttles and transports, hoping to lose their pursuers. Zek, in the meantime, went back to shooting. He leaned out the other side window and started taking more careful shots with his pistol. He still wished he brought his Needler Rifle, he was better with a scope.

He managed to score another kill on one of the shuttles, but it was going nowhere. He realized he needed to take down the shuttles themselves. He took aim at one of the pilots and fired a quick series of shots. They melted through the windshield and perforated the pilot. As he slumped over in his seat, one of the other pirates grabbed the stick, but they smashed into the side of the tunnel wall before they could correct course.

Their driver's side was smashed, but they kept racing after them despite the damage. They came up alongside the shuttle, taking aim at Taq. She didn't give them the chance to fire, turning hard into them. The enemy shuttle was bumped away and smashed into the side of a large transport. Their smoking heap pulled away from the transport momentarily before dropping out of the sky completely.

Zek continued firing at the two remaining shuttles that were after them. He fired a few shots near their rear fuel cell. Although the shots failed to break through at first. The shuttle moved up and tried to fishtail them, but Taq managed to pulled away at the last second. As they got through the next tunnel, Zek realized they were close.

"Take us down," he called. "We're getting near the drydock!"

"On it!" Taq replied, pushing down on the controls.

The shuttle ducked down out of the skylanes and brought them down over the roofs of the docking level storefronts. The enemy shuttles followed, one of the pirates inside firing a Carbine at them as they descended. Zek fired up at the shuttle as they flew, one of the shots managing to hit beneath their less protected chassis. It ignited the fuel cell and the shuttle exploded.

Flaming bits of debris fell all around them, as the shuttle split in two. Taq managed to avoid the wreck, which crashed into a large container below. Now there was one last shuttle, which suddenly bashed their backside. Taq rolled to the left to avoid the next hit and Zek got a better look at the pilot, Lurz.

"What is this freak's deal?" He demanded to know. "You've been working for Snarlbeak for awhile, what do you know?"

"All I know is that he's a creepy bastard who really likes his job," Taq explained. "That job is usually whoever Zhoc wants him to kill."

Zek believed that, recalling the poor unggoy from before. He still felt weird about that, feeling sorry for a methane sucker. He shook the thought off and fired at Lurz's shuttle as the flew. Problem was, his plasma pistol was starting to run low from all the shooting he had been doing. He could only think of one way to get rid of this crazy Ibie'shan, drawing inspiration from Chief Brody in the vid he saw the night before. Course, Brody had a rifle, not a lame ass pistol. Whatever, it would have to do.

He took aim at the shuttle, firing at it once, but it went wide.

"Steady the craft!" He ordered. "I can take him out if you keep straight for a second!"

Taq, to her credit didn't grumble or argue, doing what was asked of her. Zek fired again, hitting the nose of the shuttle. He growled as Lurz closed in again. Zek finally decided to charge up the plasma pistol to full, it would probably be his last shot as the battery started to drain.

"Smile you son of a bitch!"

The plasma bolt launched and hit the shuttle in the engine. The EMP function shorted out the craft, all it's power died and the vehicle plummeted to the floor below. Zek could only laugh hysterically at the accomplishment and point as the tiny ship crashed into the ground.

"That was for Quint, you bastard!" He shouted suddenly.

"Who is Quint?" Taq asked confused.

"Eh, no one," Zek responded, somewhat embarrassed. He really did not want to admit he just dedicated a shot to a fictional character. "Dry dock is right up there. We're home free."

At that moment, something exploded in their back. A warning light went wild on the dashboard and taq looked over at it in a fright.

"Ah shit, something blew out the grav-regulator," she growled. "Ship can't sustain lift!"

"Just keep her flying as long as possible!" Zek pleaded. "We're almost there!"

* * *

Lurz let his smoking beam rifle lower as he snarled. Clambering out of the wreck he made his way towards the drydocks. Suspecting Zek and the female would be able to list there on their own power. He may have lost his gang, but he would complete this hunt and take back what was stolen.

* * *

Garrus got back to the perimeter just in time for the enemy to bring out their big guns. Riding out into the open appeared two Ghost assault vehicles. The hovering attack craft began to strafe the area, forcing many of the defenders to fall back under the constant hail of plasma. They closed in slowly, keeping up the pressure on the line. Garrus fired at one of them, but the pilots were just too quick and kept their heads out of the line of sight.

Samara was quick to react to the attack, however. She sent out a biotic shockwave across the ground that hurtled one of the Ghosts into the air. The craft crashed down, it's occupant spilling out. Before anyone could use it again, a _Fallen Serpent_ sniper surveying things from above fired a few quick shots from his beam rifle into the fuel cell and caused the vehicle to explode. The remaining Ghost opened fire on the sniper's position, forcing him to retreat.

Garrus continued shooting at the Ghost, hoping his armor piercing rounds would make an impact at some point. Meanwhile, everyone else started head back to the entry ramp, closing the perimeter tighter. Along with the enemy Ghost, the hostile pirates started to close in. It looked like they'd have no choice but to leave Zek behind. Garrus spotted Retz near the ramp himself and made a dash to speak with him. He found Kasumi there as well covering any Jackals running into the _Serpent_.

"I think we're about to break," Garrus warned Retz. "Where is Zek?"

"Almost here," Retz assured, his voice unconcerned. "Just give him a few more seconds."

Garrus was about to launch into a debate of sorts, but that was when they heard something. It sounded like a speeding aircraft, but Garrus could only see a single shuttle. It's backside was smoking and it was coming in hard. It was specifically aiming for the Ghost as it started to crash. The shuttle smashed into the side of Ghost, sending it tumbling several feet into a nearby wall. The crashing shuttle itself hit the ground and slide several feet before coming to a stop near the edge of their lines.

Popping out of the passenger's side appeared Zek. He quickly moved over to the driver's side and popped the door himself. Looking through his scope, Garrus could see another Jackal crawling out of the wreck. He soon realized it was Taq, specifically from the hood and the fact she knocked Zek's hand away when he offered to help her out. Garrus now looked to Retz again, who was grinning profusely.

"Told you," Retz assured. "He radioed me like a minute ago. You really think I'd be okay with the men abandoning the defense if I wasn't sure?"

"You could've been more specific," Garrus informed him.

"Yes, but Zek likes to make a dramatic entrance and it would've ruined the surprise," Retz explained, still grinning as he did.

Garrus dropped the subject and contacted his team over the radio.

"Legion, Grunt, I need you to cover Zek's approach," he told them. "Once we get him inside everyone is to fallback to the _Serpent_. Move, people!"

Legion and Grunt moved up to a small stack of crates and began firing at nearby enemy positions. As Zek and Taq made a run for the ship, Varvok moved out to greet them, tossing a grenade over towards a squad of enemy Jackals moving up along their flank. The batarian ran back firing his assault rifle into the enemy lines, Zek and Taq close at his heels. Whatever could be said about Varvok, Garrus had to admit he did not lack courage. The batarian escorted them into the perimeter, even as plasma fire flew all around them. Zek and Taq then ran over to Garrus.

"Well, I assume I can thank you for all this," the turian said scowling at Zek.

"I was saving her from certain death," Zek explained defensively as he pointed at Taq. "Isn't that what you guys do? Save people's lives?"

"Granted he did lead them to my ship and it got blown up," Taq bluntly pointed out. "But I suppose the intent was uncharacteristically noble regardless."

Zek smiled for a brief moment, but then his brain caught up to her words.

"Wait what kind of compliment is that?" Zek asked, sounding a bit offended.

"It wasn't," Taq informed him. "It was me playing Demon's Advocate. Take what you can get."

Garrus groaned, he had no time for this.

"I will want an explanation later, so will Shepard," he stated. "Right now, we need to leave!"

"Don't need to tell me!" Zek declared, before turning to his second. "Retz, have the men still out there grab what they can and make a run for the _Serpent_. Activate ship defensive systems to cover them, I'll head to bridge."

"Understood, sir," Retz obliged.

Zek moved to the ramp while Garrus called in everyone on his comm.

"We're leaving people!" He told them. "Thane, get back to the _Normandy_ , no time to pick up Samara. She'll come with us on the _Serpent_. We'll rendezvous later!"

At the same time, Varvok was covering his own men who were also running into the Corvette. The batarians were carrying some of the spare crates with, or at least contents they could bring. Thankfully they wouldn't be leaving much behind, but grabbing what little they hadn't loaded yet was a good idea. As Samara herself rushed onto the ship's entry ramp, followed closely by Legion and Grunt, Kasumi stood up beside Garrus.

"I have to say, this has been a hell of a shopping trip, Garrus," she said happily.

"Just get in, please!" Garrus told her as he backed up. "I am so done with this stupid moon."

"You say that now," Kasumi said running after him. "But I'm sure we'll look back on all of this and remember it fondly. How many people can say they fought in a gunfight on a hollow moon with space pirates? That's at least a little cool."

Garrus just ignored her, he was just glad that this clusterfuck was over and done with.

* * *

Lurz eventually made it to the drydocks, but only in time to see the _Fallen Serpent_ taking off. It loosed it's docking clamps fired a few shots from it's forward plasma guns on the nose and then backed out of the Hollow into space. It was in the wind, along with the female and her stolen property. He hated to admit he had failed in his hunt. He contacted Zhoc himself.

"Didn't catch them," he said in a dreadful, hissing voice.

" _It's alright, Lurz,"_ Zhoc said softly. _"I'm aware. You did what you could and you corralled them into a single ship. Don't worry, they're not getting away that easily."_

* * *

Before they even reached the bridge, as Zek rounded a corner, he bumped into an unggoy. The little gas sucker, as per usual, hadn't been paying attention dropping a box of rations in his arms. The methane breathing midget began hurriedly picking up everything that had fallen.

"Sorry, sorry," he desperately. "Everything so crazy. Wasn't looking. I do better, honest! Just want get these to kitchen now. All mistake!"

Zek looked at the sad little alien, his pleading beady eyes and annoying squeaky voice echoing in his ears. He kind of wanted to lay into him for being a clumsy idiot, but something held him back. Maybe he was just too tired to bother. Or too busy with current things to care. Then again, there was something about the pathetic creature that, for once, didn't make him angry. Was this pity? Zek wasn't sure. What he did know was the look the unggoy was giving him reminded him too much of another of his species, one who had not been so lucky when he crossed his boss.

"Look, it's fine, I don't care," he told the unggoy. "It happens, just be a bit more observant and don't rush I guess."

The unggoy seemed confused at first, then when Zek picked one of the rations and placed it in the box for him he seemed even more confused. Not wanting to stare at his ugly mug for much longer, Zek tried to get rid of him.

"Well, get going," he ordered.

The unggoy obeyed, hobbling off, still a bit confused, but not nearly as distressed as before. Zek looked back briefly to see Garrus sharing a similar look, but one of more interest than confusion. Thankfully he said nothing further and they continued to the bridge without and other interruptions.

Zek took a moment to breath as he slumped into his chair on the bridge. It had been one of the more trying visits to the Hollow he had undertaken in awhile. At least he had gotten Taq off safely and as a bonus she was back on his ship. Although, she only seemed happy to be alive, not stuck with him again. Well, one thing at a time. At least she wasn't glaring at him, she was too busy looking a monitor in the corner. The same could not be said of Garrus who did not seem at all happy with him.

"Well, I'm waiting for that explanation now," he began.

"Minor issue, Taq was in danger, the danger turned out to be from my buyer," Zek rattled off quickly. "Had to save her, shit went down, but we're safe now. So really, things are resolved. We cool?"

"Not really," Garrus informed him bluntly. "Who the hell is Snarlbeak?"

Zek just shrugged.

"Just some old pirate who apparently has some sort of deal with Taq which she broke," he replied. "It's no big deal, we're free and clear."

"Well if it was big enough a deal that he chased you all over the moon and attacked your ship, don't you think saying we're in the clear is a bit presumptuous?" Garrus asked, fairly skeptical of Zek's aloofness. "What does she have that is so damn important he'd try to kill us over it?"

Taq must've overheard, because she was soon beside Zek's chair staring up at Garrus.

"For your information, something incredibly valuable to him," she informed the turian. "That's why he hired me to get it. Why he told me not to look too deeply into it. And he'll keep after me for it, you can be sure of that."

"Taq, please," Zek said rolling his eyes. "I'm sure he'll forget all about it before you know it. Try not to oversell this."

"I'm not overselling anything," Taq chided him, before looking back to Garrus. "And before you start thinking about possibly turning me over to the bastard to get on his good side, you should understand what he's after. I think you'll be interested in it yourself once things are clear."

Garrus looked suspiciously at Taq, unsure of what to make of her statement. Zek was worried for a moment that he'd suggest kicking her off the ship. He had risked his life just trying to get her back here, he did not want to lose her now. Taq was not helping things by suggesting Zhoc would keep after her.

"Look," Garrus eventually sighed in a reassuring tone. "I'm not planning on throwing you to a bunch of pirates to appease them. I just need to know what it is we've gotten ourselves into. If you have something to share, you need to talk to my Commander about it."

"Commander?" Taq said, looking a bit confused. "You some kind of... merc outfit or something?"

"Something," Garrus answered. "You can explain things to him when we get back."

A small electronic beep alerted Zek that they were close to their destination. Hovering just behind the planet the Hollow orbited, was the _Ascendant Justice_ and the rest of their tiny fleet. It was easy enough to spot just outside the port windows. Taq looked surprised.

"You have a carrier now?" She asked in shock. "What, was that a going away present from the Covenant?"

"Sorta," Zek replied. "Took a bit more doing to get."

They soon closed within range of the larger vessel, Retz opened a channel to the carrier and Zek spoke.

" _Serpent_ to _Justice,_ " he began. "Resupply complete, but we need to bug out quick. Get ready for slipspace jump, I'll explain more when we got the time."

While Zek didn't think Zhoc would be that quick to chase after them, he didn't want to take chances. He wanted to get out of there, now. He'd deal with the fallout from the UNSC and Shepard later, once they were safe.

"Put in a course and activate our brand new drive, Retz!" He called out. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Retz did as told, but as the engines warmed up for slipspace jump and a rupture started to form something odd happened. The rupture vanished, the entire bridge went dark for a moment, the sound of everything powering down echoed through the ship. Emergency lighting came on shortly thereafter and Zek's questions followed.

"What happened?" He demanded to know.

Retz surveyed the initial systems reports on his screen and turned to him with wide-eyed confusion.

"I'm not sure," he explained. "There was some kind of power surge. According to the computer it resonated from the slipspace drive upon activation."

"What did it do?" Garrus asked frantically.

"Shut down engines, powered down weapons systems, slipspace drive is locked out," Retz listed off quickly. "We're dead and helpless. Zek, I think we just got hit with a damn virus."

"Sir!" A deckhand from a terminal shouted up to them. "We are getting reports from the _Justice_ and the _Chorka_! Their weapons and engines are offline too! Something infected their slipspace drive along with ours!"

Zek looked about, trying to hide his fright. He knew what this probably was.

"What the hell is happening? Varvok asked him.

"I think I made a mistake," he answered nervously.

"What else is new?" Taq grumbled.

"Really not the time, Taq," Zek growled.

The deckhand shouted up to him again.

"Sirs," he said. "We're being hailed. I think you'll want to hear this."

Zek activated the communication screen himself and the old scarred face of Zhoc appeared before him. The old pirate looked rather pleased himself, tapping his little claws together as he smiled smugly.

" _Zek, dear little Zek,"_ he began slyly. _"You seem to be in a spot of trouble. I wonder how that happened?"_

Zek could only laugh a little and smile cheekily.

"You clever bastard," he chuckled. "You gave me an infected slipspace drive. And since you did that before I saved Taq, I suppose it means you knew more than you were letting on."

" _Killing a San'Shyuum, let alone a Prophet, gets around fast,"_ Zhoc explained shrugging. _"I like you, Zek, but the price on your head was too good to pass up. The virus is basically designed to infect any ships in a close proximity with active slipspace drives. While it's dormant of course it broadcasts your location directly to me, so I was able to get eyes on you fairly quickly. I suspected you had a small fleet by now, but a Carrier? That is impressive, good job on getting that, Zek."_

"Well, I don't like to brag," Zek chuckled warmly, feigning modesty. "But it was a pretty sweet grab."

" _I'm sure it was,"_ Zhoc said nodding, returning to the discussion at hand. _"I had planned to activate the virus later and have the Covenant basically surround you while I quietly collected the bounty. However, you somewhat forced my hand here. Your Ex has something I want and I paid her good money to acquire it. Contracts are important, Zek. You have to understand my position here."_

"I do," Zek said, still keeping up his cordial grin. "But what can I say? I still kinda like her. Old flames and all that, ya know?"

Taq suddenly pushed herself in front of Zek and stared at the Old Man himself with a scowl.

"What you were paying to get this wasn't nearly enough," She declared. "You were ripping me off, giving me scraps while you reserved the biggest prize for yourself!"

" _Oh Taq,"_ Zhoc said, shaking his head and feigning disappointment. _"You always wanted to bite off more than you could chew. I admire your willingness to push on with this tomb raiding passion of yours, but this is what happens when you allow a hobby to become a job. You have to accept the work you are given and breaching contract is never a wise career choice. Ask Zek, he's about to become my newest batch of paychecks for the fleet for the next few months."_

Taq just growled at Zhoc and brought his face up close to the monitor.

"I am going to get out of this, you old piece of shit," she declared. "I'm going to steal this mother-lode for myself and I'm going to laugh at you the whole fucking way!"

" _Cute, but that's not happening,"_ Zhoc chuckled slightly. _"We had a deal, you broke it. I want my property back and I will have it."_

Zek pushed Taq aside and tried to get the conversation back onto him.

"Let's not be hasty, isn't there a way to work this out?" He asked, trying to maintain a confident air about him.

" _I'm sorry, Zek,"_ Zhoc said feigning sadness. _"You can't show weakness in this line of work. I will perhaps consider letting your ship go, provided you hand over yourself, Taq, what I asked her to steal and that Carrier, of course. Maybe that other Corvette I see languishing in the void too, that would be nice."_

"Sorry, can't do that," Zek replied pleasantly. "Mostly because the Carrier situation is a bit complicated and I don't want to die today."

" _A bit out of your hands at this point I think,"_ Zhoc replied smugly. _"You're weaponless, powerless and I am on my way with two Battlecruisers. You really don't have much of a chance."_

"I'll be the judge of that," Zek laughed smiling, before he started to wave. "Nice talking to you, gonna totally kick your ass."

" _You're very welcome to try,"_ Zhoc said, smiling amiably at him. _"See you soon, Zek, you too, Taq."_

"Bite me, dipshit!" Taq snarled back.

Zhoc just laughed jovially at the remark.

" _I can see why you still like her, Zek,"_ he said smiling. _"She's a fiery one."_

With that the call was terminated and Zek laughed lightly at his departure.

"Heh, he's such a card, ain't he?" He asked.

"I'm glad you find the prospect of our impending deaths by pirates so funny," Garrus said scowling.

"Honestly, Zek, you could take this more seriously," Varvok added in agreement. "Do you have a plan on how to get us out of this?"

"I have part of one," the Pirate leader admitted, turning to his crew. "Communications, get me Colonel Holland at once!"

"Uh, he's already on the line, sir," responded one of the deckhands. "He is, uh, well, not happy."

Zek just shrugged at that.

"Well, makes this faster I guess," he reasoned. "Put him on screen."

Holland's scowling face was only slightly better than Zhoc. At least Holland didn't want to kill him, well, at least Zek hoped he didn't. The Colonel was clearly about ready to start screaming, his face near bright red. Realizing he needed to be careful about what he said next, Zek tried to be tactful.

"I'm guessing you've noticed we've run into a problem," he admitted.

" _We noticed,"_ Holland stated, his glare icy and cold.

"Okay, before we start blaming each other, we should worry about getting out of this alive first," Zek responded quickly, hoping to defuse matters before they got heated. "Look, we can fix this, we just need to buy ourselves some time."

" _Our sensors are already picking up two battlecruisers enroute,"_ Holland informed him still near the cusp of raging. " _We have no weapons, we have no ability to move, we have no time."_

Zek tried to keep composed, he did not want to get drowned out before he could share his plan.

"We have a way to buy some," he assured the Colonel. "The virus only infects active slipspace drives, right? That means any spacecraft without one is operational. You have a ton in your hangar."

" _The Seraphs,"_ Holland deduced rather plainly. _"But we'd need someone to pilot them."_

At that moment, Cortana interrupted the call, appearing on a screen next to Holland. She apparently had been listening in, as she seemed to know more less everything that was going on. Zek was hardly surprised considering she had spied on them before.

" _There's an easy solution to that, sir,"_ she began rather simply. _"The Master Chief and the Spartans can take those Seraphs out into a firefight. They're not expert pilots, but they're more than capable of handling the craft. I can upload basic combat instructions to their Heads Up display if needed."_

" _Four fighters isn't enough to take on two battlecruisers though,"_ he cautioned. _"We need more than that."_

" _Commander Shepard has a solution to that himself, sir,"_ Cortana explained. _"EDI is patching his comm through now."_

Almost immediately, Shepard's voice came over the communications. Despite everything, he sounded as cool and collected as ever. In fact, he seemed pretty prepared given what he had to share.

" _Sir, the Normandy's slipspace drive isn't installed into our systems. The virus didn't hit us,"_ He explained succinctly. _"My ship is ready to head out and offer any assistance possible."_

" _Good to hear it, Commander, but that still leaves us dead in the water,"_ Holland reminded him. _"We need a way to get back online."_

"And I have the solution to that," Zek informed the Colonel, calling their attention back to him. "The virus came from our drive, we just have to find it's source here and kill it here. Once it's purged, it should fix everything. Right, Retz?"

Retz nodded as he looked back at his screen.

"It will take time on our own though," he warned. "The only way I see us getting it back online before we're space dust is, well, if we hand a few extra hands... or tentacles."

Holland's face on the screen showed he had an idea of where this was going. He did not look any happier. Zek tried to ease his concerns.

"We just need one Huragok," he insisted. "Only one. It can get into the slipspace drive's systems and purge the virus from all our boats at once. It's the fastest the solution, kill it at the source."

Holland growled beneath his throat, but he didn't have much room to argue.

" _We'll send one over on a Phantom as soon as possible with an armed escort of ODSTs."_

Holland response was a sigh of relief, but then Zek heard that last past. The Drop Troopers? Those guys? Was he serious? They hated him and his crew, at least that was what he heard. He really did not want those angry xenophobes on his ship.

"You said before it would be Marines escorting the Huragok if I wanted one," he reminded the Colonel.

" _That was before you got us into this disaster,"_ Holland shouted at him at long last. _"The ODSTs will escort the Engineer to the Slipspace drive. It will fix it and the second we're out of danger it will be escorted back to the Carrier. And after that, we are having a very frank discussion together. Holland, out."_

Zek was taken aback by the outburst, even if he could understand it. Still, at least his plan to fix this was underway, even if he did get chewed out a little. He looked over to Taq, still beside him, her face one of bemusement.

"You're working with humans now?" She asked, still trying to wrap her head around thing. "Specifically their homeworld's military, given all that rank and file stuff."

"It's a long story," Zek explained.

"Well we're stuck in space at the mercy of Snarlbeak with only a few fighters and some Commander Shepard person protecting us," she recounted. "So, I guess you have some time to start talking."

Zek shrugged, he supposed she had a point. So he went back to the beginning.

"Well, you see, it sorta starts when the Covenant found this wormhole..."

* * *

Chief hadn't thought he'd have to do something like this today. It wasn't that he didn't think something would go wrong, it's just that he thought it would remain confined to the moon. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Now he was climbing into an alien fighter craft, preparing to face off against two battlecruisers. He was just happy to have a team and Commander Shepard flying with him on this, otherwise he'd be less enthusiastic about this plan.

He strapped himself into the seat and took up the controls. They weren't too dissimilar from a Banshee, but clearly more complicated. Normally, these ships needed two pilots, but that was the same of a lot of fighters in the UNSC and Spartans were often capable of flying those with ease. He and the others had the advantage of course of Cortana who could run most of the secondary functions for them. Her detailed HUD layout for the controls also made it easier to figure out what switches did what, along with other details.

"Everyone strapped in?" He asked over the comm.

" _Ready,"_ Linda said.

" _Good to go,"_ Kat complied.

" _Still not too cool about flying in one of these things,"_ Jun admitted casually. _"But yeah, I'm ready."_

"Just stay on my wing and aim for my targets," Chief ordered. "Remember, the objective is to buy time for the Engineer to purge the virus. So just keep focused on damaging them, don't worry about taking them out."

" _What if an opportunity presents itself?"_ Kat asked.

"Let Shepard handle that then," he told her plainly. "His ship has the bigger gun."

The hangar doors opened up shortly after and Chief activated the Seraph's ignition. The craft sprung to life, lifting into the air. He eased his hands forward on the control sticks and the ship lurched into open space. It was a rocky launch, he wasn't as familiar with this thing even with Cortana's help, but they managed to pull out into void and form up fairly quickly. Jun was a little jerky, as was Kat, however they still kept a tight pattern regadless. Moments later, they hooked up with the _Normandy_ , flying along it's side.

"Master Chief to _Normandy_ ," Chief spoke through the comms. "What is your vector?"

" _We're doing good, Chief,"_ Joker reported back _"Weapons are primed and good to go. Transferring you to the Commander."_

It took only a few more seconds for Shepard's voice to fill his cockpit.

" _Chief, good to have you flying wingman on this,"_ he told him. _"Last time we faced a battlecruiser we barely managed to fight it off. We would've been dead if it weren't for Joker's flying, we avoided taking any hits from their main weapons, but we still took a lot of damage. I'd hate to think how we'd fare against two of them."_

"We'll watch your back, sir," Chief assured. "Don't worry. These Seraphs are armed with plasma cannons and charges. It should be enough to knock out their main guns if we get close enough."

" _EDI can help you with that,"_ Shepard assured. _"One advantage we have is I doubt these pirates have an AI aboard like the last one we fought. It stopped EDI from shutting their systems down. Hopefully she'll be able to bring her full cyberwarfare runtimes to bare in this fight though."_

"A fair assessment," Cortana agreed. "The Covenant only get their AIs by stealing them from the UNSC and corrupting them through poor management. I doubt any of this Snarlbeak's ships have anything that rare aboard. If EDI can shut down the point defenses, it should give the Seraphs an easy attack vector on their main guns."

" _I assume so,"_ EDI answered, cutting into the conversation. _"However, I cannot be certain they don't have security system backups. These pirates are certainly knowledgeable enough to create a computer virus, it is not outside the range of possibility that they know how to counteract similar attacks."_

"Then we got to make our one pass count," Chief reasoned. "We take out the majority of their guns on the two ships and try to avoid the point defenses where we can."

" _I'll have EDI keep hitting them with every trick in the book,"_ Shepard assured. _"And we got plenty of firepower ourselves. Between the upgrades to the ship and the modifications the Huragok trio we have aboard have been doing, we should be able to handle this."_

Now that they had a game plan set up, it was time to move to attack. They set a course to intercept the incoming battlecruisers. They didn't have to fly long to spot them, as the two vessels came floating in from the endless black, speeding towards the disabled flotilla.

"I'm detecting heavy modifications to the armor and weapons," Cortana warned. "Similar to the _Fallen Serpent's_ actually. More guns, better armor, more efficient engines, this Snarlbeak certainly likes to trick out his ships. Makes you realize how much the Covenant are squandering their own fleet's potential by refusing to upgrade."

"All the more reason to hit them hard and fast," Chief reaffirmed to the squad. "Bite, run and come back around again, team. We aren't killing these things and that's not our job anyway."

" _Copy, Chief,"_ Linda complied. _"Awaiting your signal."_

A few tense seconds went by, Chief peering over the information readouts Cortana was displaying for him on the dash. They had a good vector on the starboard gun batteries, that was their best bet. They probably couldn't take them all out, but they could do some damage. It would give Shepard room to start hitting them. Suddenly, EDI contacted them.

" _Point defenses are being disabled,"_ she reported. _"Their systems were unprepared, but I am detecting security efforts. Make your run now, Master Chief."_

"Copy," Chief agreed. "Spartans, on my wing. We're going in."

The Seraphs started their attack run, diving for the battlecruisers. There was no point defense fire, EDI had done her job. Now they had to do theirs. Chief opened fire on nearest ship, raking it with the plasma cannon. As they closed in, Chief decided to break the formation.

"Linda, take Kat," he ordered. "Bomb the second cruiser!"

" _Roger!"_ Linda said in compliance.

"Jun, stay with me," he ordered. "Drop your charges on my targets!"

The flight split up, Chief staying on course for the main starboard battery as they closed the distance. He kept raking the hull with plasma fire, setting off explosions along the armor, destroying defensive emplacements as they went. Then they approached the actual battery and Chief let loose the plasma charges. They fell upon the enemy guns with a crash, blowing up one after the other in quick succession. When it was done, Chief pulled back on the sticks and the lift off from the side of the ship. Tracer fire followed them as they flew higher, the enemy's fire kicking back in.

" _It's awfully thick out here,"_ Jun warned.

"We got this, keep moving!" Chief ordered.

Their shields held as they raced away from the pirate ship, eventually getting out of range. Linda and Kat soon hooked back up with them as they turned towards the backside of both ships.

" _We took out over half their guns,"_ Linda said.

"Same with ours," Chief added. "That should give Shepard a decent approach vector. Right now, lets focus on slowing the ships down. Aim for their engines, damage them enough and they won't be going anywhere."

Chief dove back down into the fray, his Spartans following.

* * *

Shepard eyed the sensors approvingly. Chief had taken out a significant portion of the main guns. The enemy wouldn't have full coverage now. The Spartans had done their part, it was time to do theirs.

"Take us in, Joker," Shepard ordered. "And power up the main gun. Slice along the path the Spartans just made and set us up for a second run on the engines."

" _You got it, sir!"_ Joker replied.

The _Normandy_ dove towards the deck, launching secondary weapons as it dive bombed the battlecruiser. Missiles struck the enemy vessel in a cascade. Then, once they were in range, the Thanix Cannon fired. A bright blue flame blazed across the side of the hull, blowing up an additional main gun before it could target their ship. The damage done, _Normandy_ rocketed back up into the void, not wanting to push it's luck too much by getting too close.

"Great shot, Joker!" Shepard congratulated. "Now get ready for another pass!"

"Commander," EDI contacted him. "We have an incoming hail, it is from the lead vessel. Patching you through."

A voice came through the speakers, a smooth but slightly irritated voice.

" _Attention unidentified craft, whoever you are,"_ it began gruffly. _"This is none of your affair. I kindly suggest you disengage both you and your Seraphs at once. Or do you want to make an enemy of Fleetmaster Snarlbeak?"_

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, sir," Shepard reported. "You're attacking my flotilla. Those Corvettes and that Carrier are under my protection."

" _And who exactly are you?"_ Snarlbeak demanded.

"Commander Shepard, Systems Alliance," he replied adamantly. "You've attacked my crew and my allies. So I think it's you who should back off."

There was a brief silence and then Snarlbeak returned.

" _Shepard? I've heard that name,"_ he reasoned, sounding rather intrigued. _"This wouldn't be the fabled 'False Shepherd' would it? The one with a big bounty on his head that the Covenant set up? And you and Zek are working together? My, my, this is a surprise."_

"If you're familiar with me, you must know what I'm capable of," Shepard told him plainly. "Again, withdraw while you can."

" _I don't think so,"_ Snarlbeak replied. _"I am well aware of your reputation and you're probably too big a fish to catch... for the moment. But there are things going on here that are far more important than just mere bounties. Zek has helped someone steal something precious to me, I'm not letting him or his friend take it. Do yourself a favor, Shepard, get out while you can. You have no idea what you've invited into your little fleet."_

"Not happening," Shepard declared bluntly. "Zek might not be the ideal partner, but he's part of this fleet. I'm not letting you have him or anyone on his ship."

" _Unfortunate,"_ Snarlbeak sighed. _"You've just become involved in something way bigger than you, Commander. You will regret it."_

"Doubt it," Shepard replied. "I step into this kind of thing all the time."

He had EDI terminate the call. He didn't think he could get him to back down, but he had pried some interesting information form the pirate regardless. Whatever it was that had made Snarlbeak chase after them, it sounded pretty big. He'd have to talk to Zek about it, after they dealt with this problem.

" _Commander, the second vessel is charging up their main battery on the port side!"_

"Hit them hard, Joker," Shepard ordered. "Then get out of range of the guns and aim for their engines."

Joker moved into attack position, heavy plasma fire racing towards them now. He leaned hard left and right, dodging the incoming fire. Shields took some damage when the shots passed by, but it was minor. When they got in range, the Thanix fired again and the battery exploded. There were plenty more though, so Joker pulled out and started heading towards the engines. If they didn't stop this ship before it got into range of the fleet, well, he didn't really want to think about that.

* * *

McKay hadn't really been aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ , she had been too busy keeping things with her unit together to consider checking it out. All she knew from the few Marines who had briefly stayed there before they acquired the _Justice_ was that it smelled terrible and was becoming a steadily growing mess. At least she wouldn't be stuck there long, just until the Engineer did it's job.

She felt like she was only really here out of luck, because she just happened to be in the same room as Haverson and Holland when everything went dark power wise. Then again, most of the team was here by luck. Sergeant Buck, Corporal Travers and Private Collis just happened to be the three Drop Troopers she ran into on her way down to the hangar. They found the Engineer waiting for them to board a Phantom.

She got lucky with Buck, as he too had taken Holland's side during the mutiny. Travers and Collis, not as much. Travers specifically had been punched in the face by Kat. Collis hadn't directly engaged with any Spartans, but he did keep giving her dirty looks every couple of minutes. When he heard they were headed over to the _Serpent_ , he spat on the ground and muttered something under his breath. Yeah, he had some issues. Hopefully this whole business would be over with quickly.

The tussle with the Battlecruisers was a bit a ways from them. They didn't have to worry about getting shot down on their way over at least. They soon reached the _Serpent's_ hangar and parked in the center. They had been told Zek's second would be waiting for them, McKay just assumed it was the scruffy looking Jackal with a mane of feathers looking at them.

"Lieutenant McKay," he greeted with a brief bow. "First Mate Retz, at your service."

"Hi," she began, a bit hesitant to return the bow. "Look, we don't have much time, so can we get moving?"

"Of course," Retz agreed.

Buck, Travers and Collis led the Engineer out. It surveyed the immediate area curiously. Buck snapped his fingers, catching the tentacled creature's attention.

"Hey, focus," he told it. "You got a job to do, remember?"

The engineer followed them as they snaked through the corridors of the ship towards the engine room.

"I already have my people working on the preliminary scans," Retz explained as they walked. "Should cut down on some time. The unggoy are there too, trying isolate potential pathways. We don't want any virus leftovers surviving the purge and cropping up later."

"For your sake, space turkey, I hope that doesn't happen," Travers growled at him. "Otherwise we'll be back here in a less friendly-like manner."

McKay looked back at Corporal, giving him a glare. Buck backed her up, poking Travers in the ribs with his elbow.

"Zip it, Corporal," he said. "It ain't the time for that."

Retz didn't seem register the comment as he kept walking. Good, McKay didn't want to make this situation worse than it already was. She did have similar concerns though, although not nearly as hostile.

"This purge will work, right?" She asked.

"Viruses like these have a central origin point," Retz explained. "It's connected to all the systems currently. You kill it here, the purge extends to that connection and wipes out the traces of it over there. Trust me, this is a fairly common cyberwarfare tactic. It's just never snuck aboard like this, it's usually uploaded."

"Yeah, I've heard of Trojan Horses, but this is a whole other level," Buck said, slightly chuckling at his own joke.

The attempt to alleviate the situation was lost on Retz who just kept walking, taking a turn and heading down a ramp.

"Once the system is purged it should take a few second to restart," he continued to explain. "Once we're back online, we'll launch a few plasma torpedoes to scatter Snarlbeak's ships. We'll send Holland jump coordinates and we'll jump together."

"Together, huh?" Collis muttered. "Shame."

McKay shot him a glare and cleared her throat at him. That time the insult registered though.

"I understand if you and your people are upset, Lieutenant," Retz replied plainly, though clearly growing displeased. "But I assure you, we are doing all we can to rectify this situation."

"Good," Collis snarled. "Considering you stupid birds are the reason we're stuck in it."

"Private, that's enough," McKay shouted back at him sternly. "We are not here to argue, we are here to fix this. So stow whatever feelings you got and clam up. Now!"

Collis stiffened his face, but quickly complied.

"Yes, ma'am." he replied, his voice still grumbling.

They reached the engine room at last. Entering they found several Jackals already hard at work at terminals, desperately trying finish up their scans. The grunts were there too, just as Retz said, working on monitors of their own.

"How's it going?" Retz asked the nearest crewmember.

"Scans are practically complete, but this virus seemed embedded in the code," he explained. "We're going to try and supplement the purge by restarting systems one by one. Best we can do right now, we got the unggoy on it."

"Just do what you can and stay out of gas bag's way," Retz ordered.

The Engineer slowly floated over to the slipspace drive port near the engine core. It looked at it for a few moments curiously, before placing it's many tentacles into the connection ports. It moved slightly to the left, inserting another tentacle into a nearby data port.

"Is it starting the purge?" Buck asked.

"It's assessing things, drawing on data we've compiled," Retz explained. "It can use that to figure out the rest. It will begin the purge once it tracks down every bit of the virus and infected code."

"I don't get it," Collis said. "Why the hell do you need it to fix your own ship? Don't you know how to do the purge yourselves?"

"Huragok are just plain better at it," Retz informed the Private, slightly annoyed as he did. "It's their function. By ourselves, setting up a systems purge would take at least a day and that's with a skilled team. A huragok can do all the complex functions required in less time, supplementing the ship's systems with it's own supercomputer brain. Hell, they know more about these ships then even the Sangheili I wager."

McKay cocked her head slightly to the side as the Engineer kept working. It's tentacles were glowing bright blue as light seemed to travel through them. She kept listening to Retz as she watched and her mind raced with questions.

"So they know more about the Covenant's own ships than they do?" She wondered aloud. "Why? How?"

"Who knows," Retz shrugged. "But given how pretty much all of the tech the Covenant have developed is based on the Forerunners, I'm guessing it has something to do with that. Why else would they be so vital to keeping all this shit running?"

The Engineer suddenly disconnected from slipspace drive and moved over to the engine core nearby. It wrapped it's vestiges across the power conduits and the lights started to fluctuate. The core itself began to spark.

"Looks like it's trying to restore reserve power in preparation for restart," Retz reasoned.

The core finally sparked to life, a blue shimmering light resonating from within. The Engineer left the core and then floated over to a nearby terminal connected to the slipspace drive. It's tentacles jabbed into every port and drive it could find and bioluminescent creature began the glow several shades of bright purple, pink and blue.

"It's starting," Retz said, before looking to the crew. "Keep your eyes on those monitors! We need to keep track of it's progress!"

McKay just kept her eyes on the Huragok, watching it work it's "magic" so to speak. It was weird to think this bizarre alien, and it's plethora of kin, was responsible for maintaining the Covenant's edge. Just yesterday it had been on the side of the enemy, keeping the Carrier they hijacked running. Now, it was here trying to save their lives. Was it just self-preservation? She couldn't be sure and she supposed it didn't matter. Right now, they just needed to keep watch on it and make sure none of these pirates did anything with it beyond purging this damn virus, which hopefully wouldn't take much longer.

* * *

Chief kept the pressure on the engines for a bit longer before pulling away. He didn't want to get too close to the point defenses on the backside of the ship. His shields could hold out, but they weren't invincible. As he pulled back, Jun tried launching a charge at one of the point defense batteries. Unfortunately it missed and he had to abandon his run as fire started hitting his shields.

" _I'm really missing my rifle right about now,"_ he said in frustration.

"Keep at it, Jun," Chief encouraged. "We're making an impact, however small."

"Speed for the lead craft is down by ten percent," Cortana noted. "Not much, but every little bit helps."

Chief was hoping they could land a charge or something down a main shaft, but with all the point defenses it was hard just trying to get close. They needed to think smarter here if they wanted to land a good hit.

"I got an idea," he told the squadron. "We need to split the focus of those point defenses, keep them guessing. Fly in a diamond pattern and split apart when we get in range. I'll then double back and hit the engines with a charge while they're distracted."

" _Worth a shot,"_ Linda concurred. _"Just be sure not to get hit on your way out, you'll be in their crossfire at that point."_

"I'll have Cortana boost shields and power to thrusters after I've made the drop," Chief assured. "I have the best shot with her aboard, it's the only reason I'm taking the risk."

"Of course I don't get a say in that, but whatever," Cortana lightly chided. "Good to know I've helped increase your daredevil aspects. Truly, my greatest accomplishment."

The Spartans formed up and raced towards the burning engine thrusters. Point defenses opened up as soon as they entered range. As the hail of plasma raged around them, the formation broke up, going in four different directions. The guns tried to track each ship individually, splitting their combined focus as predicted. Chief was headed downward, but then pulled back on the stick. He got a lock on the engine and launched a plasma charge and fired the cannon for good measure.

The blast went right down one of the main exhaust ports and exploded. Flames burst from the thruster and Chief turned hard to avoid them. He turned on the booster and sped away from the Battlecruiser's backside. He managed to avoid most of the enemy fire as he returned to the squadron, although his shields were almost gone.

"Speed down by twenty-five percent," Cortana reported. "Good shot, Chief. And we still have our heads, so that's a bonus."

At that moment, Chief saw the second Battlecruiser taking point and it pulled away from the lead. The _Normandy_ dived from on high and fired a blast into the aft of the ship from the Thanix Cannon. An explosion erupted along the pirate ship's side as the smaller frigate kept diving below it.

" _Chief,"_ Shepard's voice sounded through the cockpit. _"We're going to do a run on their belly, less armor around there on this one. Heavier guns though, can you assist?"_

"Affirmative," Chief agreed. "Form up for a strafing run, Spartans. We're hitting their underside guns."

The squadron formed up and moved into intercept range. Chief spied the first gun on their assault path and laid into it with the plasma cannon. It exploded after a few clean shots. The rest of the team followed him in, flying hard and fast close to battlecruiser's stomach. The larger point defense guns moved to fire on them, but they were inside their perimeter already. Chief blazed a trail through them, knocking out gun after gun as he weaved two and fro. It didn't take much to ignite the heavy plasma cannons on the underside, the Seraph seemed more than capable of doing that. The smaller laser-based defenses were scoring hits though, their shields starting to drain.

"I'm pulling all power to the shields," Cortana said. "But we got to finish this up."

They came to the last turret on their run. Chief took aim at it even as it pointed it's barrel directly at him. It fired, but he rolled around the blast. He laid into the gun with the cannon and plasma charges. The result was a fiery explosion that ripped the point defense emplacement apart. Spartans then broke for open space, escaping the range of the anti-air. As they did, the _Normandy_ shot up from below, firing the Thanix directly into the underside. There was a terrific explosion that lit up the Battlecruiser's belly. As fires raged, it's dash to the disabled fleet was slowed.

As much damage as they were causing though, they couldn't keep this up forever. Chief's readouts said he had sustained damage to his left side. Their run hadn't been flawless and their shields were cracking under the pressure of this mismatch. And things were about to get worse it seemed.

"Guys, we have a problem," Cortana warned. "I just intercepted a communique from the lead vessel. We have a third Battlecruiser enroute!"

Great, they were barely holding it together against two. Now they had a third on the way. They were out of time. He knew that the Engineer should be inside the _Serpent_ by now. He just hoped that this purge plan would work, because he didn't think they could survive another run like that.

* * *

The Engineer trilled loudly as the lights all over the ship began to turn on and off. McKay wasn't sure what it was doing exactly, but she guessed this was part of the virus purge. The engines hummed louder and louder, sparks began to fly, alarms sounded and then... it all went dark. A few brief seconds later, everything turned back on. The Engineer released itself from the console it had been working at and floated back to the ODST lazily, looking almost worn out. One of the grunts working at a terminal cried out before anyone else.

"Slipspace drive functioning!" It shouted with glee. "We back online!"

A cheer sounded from both Jackals and grunts situated in the engine room, Retz grinning as they did. McKay, however, had other thoughts on her mind. She contacted the _Justice_ immediately.

"McKay to Carrier, what is your status, sirs?" She asked hopefully.

" _Back in the saddle, Lieutenant,"_ Haverson answered, sounding more than a little enthused by the turn of fortunes. _"The purge worked! All systems to the Justice and the Chorka are back online! Zek just sent us the jump coordinates. We are warming up for slipspace jump! Hang tight down there, we're getting the hell out of this system!"_

* * *

The Carrier suddenly sprung to life, turning sharply into the angle of attack along with the _Chorka_. The _Serpent_ sped to their side, firing plasma torpedoes at the Battlecruisers. The enemy ships pulled a hard right just to avoid getting hit, but the second one took a blast to it's stern and listed out of attack position entirely.

"Zek's plan worked," Cortana announced. "The fleet is back in business!"

" _All ships, head to the Justice's hangar!"_ Shepard ordered. _"We're getting out of here!"_

As they sped back to the _Justice_ , they could see the third Battlecruiser coming into range. It was moving hard and fast, trying to close to attack range. It was also blocking their jump vector from the looks of things. That made it much more of a threat to their escape.

" _Sirs,"_ Kat called out through the radio. _"Should we do something about that battlecruiser?"_

" _No worries, Noble Two,"_ Holland's voice assured the flight. _"We got him covered ourselves. Firing forward guns!"_

An impressive cascade of plasma fire ejected out of the Carrier's forward batteries. The blasts collided with the Battlecruiser and ripped it apart with ease. The enemy ship broke in two, flames licking out from it's insides. Then it's engine core ruptured in a spectacular display. Moments later, Chief's Spartans and the _Normandy_ were back inside the _Justice_. Holland's voice echoed over the intercom as they landed.

" _All Hands, brace for slipspace jump!"_

* * *

Zhoc watched as the slipspace ruptures formed in front of the Carrier and the two Corvettes. The ships vanished from sight through them, disappearing into the vast cosmic black. He sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. He then turned to one of his engineers standing behind his chair.

"You said they wouldn't be able to purge the virus fast enough," he said scowling.

"They must've had a Huragok on hand," the engineer claimed plainly. "I can only do so much to prepare for those and we didn't know they had one."

Zhoc shook his head at the excuse. That's what it was, an excuse. He hated excuses.

"You should have planned for Huragok," he growled at the engineer. "You should have planned for everything. This was too important to not consider everything!"

"This was set up for later remember?" The engineer argued. "When the Covenant could surround them. How was I supposed to predict things would get more complicated?"

"Everything always gets more complicated," Zhoc shouted at him. "Plans change, conditions change, you have to prepared for every potential outcome. If you don't, this happens! I just lost a whole battlecruiser and these ships will need to go in for extensive repairs! That's time and money lost! Time and money I need now more than ever!"

The engineer was now cowering under the browbeating, Zhoc's face in his. The pirate Fleetmaster pulled away, a small friendly smile growing on his beak.

"We will need to readjust things, I suppose," he admitted, slowly turning away. "Like I said, plans change. This situation is easily remedied. We just need to make sure we don't have another oversight like this in the future."

The engineer nodded in response, but before he could say anything else...

"Lurz."

A large claw grabbed around the engineer's beak. He was forced down onto the ground as Lurz pressed his body weight upon him. The brutish Ibie'shan beat the poor unsuspecting bird to a pulp, bright purple blood staining the floor. Zhoc kept his eyes ahead as the rest of the crew watched with grim reverence. This was how Snarlbeak ran his ships, how he dealt with incompetence.

"There is no more room for mistakes," he sternly informed his crew, even as the beating continued. "We can ill-afford them when we are so close. I will have my prize and the galaxy with it. Zek and his new friends have only delayed the inevitable and they have no idea what lies in store for them."

* * *

The shuttle returned to the _Ascendant Justice_ , bringing the _Normandy's_ ground crew, Varvok, Zek, Retz and their newest guest, Taq, with it. Shepard was waiting for them when they got off the shuttle. As expected, he did not look all that happy to see the Jackals. They had come out of slipspace only a few minutes before. At the same time they arrived, a Phantom was returning McKay's team with the Engineer passenger in tow. However, just because they had gotten away, didn't mean everything was resolved, as Shepard made fairly clear.

"Holland and Haverson are seriously pissed," he informed Zek. "Can't say I blame them."

"Look, for the record, we would've probably done some tests on that drive if things didn't go to shit down there," Zek tried to argue. "It's just we didn't have time to do it when they did."

"But they still did," Shepard informed him. "And while they're angry at you, remember, I still convinced them to come here. So it kind of reflects badly on me regardless."

"They can't blame you too much, Shepard," Garrus told him. "It's not like you went into this without a plan."

"True, but I'd still like to show them the trouble was worth it," Shepard explained, looking back towards Zek. "Garrus told me your new crew member has something I might be interested in."

Taq pushed herself in front of Zek, scowling as she did.

"Let's get one thing straight," she said curtly. "I am NOT his crew member, okay? I'm just apparently stuck with him. As for what I have, if I start talking and you like what you hear, you need to agree to a few of my terms, chief among them my fee, which is big."

"We can work that out with Holland when we meet him," Shepard told her. "To be honest though, I'm not entirely sure what we can offer you, Ms..."

"Taq," she stated abruptly. "My name is Taq. And try to understand, I don't really have much of a choice in this matter now. I need a ship, I need supplies and I need people to pull this off. You are the only ones I can get to now. But just because I'm out of options, doesn't mean I'm going to roll over for you humans. I'm not sure how it works in your part of the galaxy, but this was my find and I deserve my full compensation."

Shepard crossed his arms, a bit annoyed at how he was getting brow beat over this when he was trying to be reasonable and hear her out first. Then again, she apparently had a trying day and had to deal with Zek on top of it, so maybe the anger was a little justified.

"Okay, we'll work out a contract for you somehow," Shepard assured her. "Just tell me what we're dealing with? Why does this Snarlbeak want you so bad?"

"He doesn't want me," she corrected. "He wants this."

Taq reached into her satchel and pulled out a small pyramid object that she held between her claws.

"It's Forerunner," she informed him. "A map to something of theirs if you want to get technical. Does that get your attention now?"

It certainly did, especially considering his prior conversation with Liara earlier in the day. He didn't know for certain, but he had a good hunch this was somehow connected. He just needed to be sure.

"What's it lead to?" He asked curiously.

"The biggest archaeological find of the millennia," she claimed. "The mother-lode."

* * *

They arrived in the briefing room to find Haverson, Holland and the Chief waiting. Cortana was already plugged into the holotable, Chief was close by. Haverson didn't even let Zek open his mouth before he laid into him.

"Well that was a nice excursion," he chided. "Any other death traps you feel like flying us into?"

"There were... complications, I admit," Zek relented. "But it all worked out. We got the supplies, my ship can jump under it's own power again, and we're alive. That's all good."

"Except now we are on the radar of another space pirate," Haverson shouted at him. "One that wants your head and potentially all of ours!"

Zek just shrugged at Haverson's angry rhetoric.

"I never said that there wasn't some risk involved in coming here," he reminded them. "I tried to minimize it, but things got out of hand. And in a way, we're lucky they did. We forced Zhoc to play that little card of his. Now we don't have to worry about being stalled out in the middle of an ambush. I say we did good today, despite everything."

"I think you have a very weird definition of good," Haverson told him bluntly. "The fact remains that we now have a dangerous pirate on our asses, who apparently, if his title is any indication, has his own fleet."

"We already have enough problems with the Covenant hunting us," Holland added. "Now you've added this wrinkle to things on top of our many concerns. You brought us here, you exposed us to it."

"Not to mention you apparently added to your own resources down there," Haverson added. "Is security not at all an issue to you?"

Zek looked to Retz with a scowl. The feathered Jackal merely sighed.

"It's hard to disguise taking on more recruits, Zek," he reminded him. "Especially when you're under guard."

"I wanted to break it gently at least," Zek countered. "It would've looked better coming from me."

"It doesn't look good either way," Haverson told him. "I can understand replenishing your own forces, to a degree. But we do not share that luxury being out in the middle of nowhere. You should've have run it by us first."

"Yeah, and then you would've put limits on how many I could get and probably got that creepy Asari to glare at us while we did it," Zek answered venomously. "I'm sorry, but I just got out of a shit deal with some asshole religious nuts. I don't need military thugs telling me how to run my fucking ship."

Holland grimaced at being called a thug. His glare was enough to soften Zek's stance, realizing he had probably pushed it a bit. The pirate took a breath and re-composed himself.

"Look, I recovered stolen UNSC property," he began anew. "I got you food. I got you and Shepard rare weapons. I even scrounged up some potential upgrades for both the _Normandy_ and the _Chorka_ if you want them."

Retz cleared his throat slightly.

"Okay, technically Retz got you all that while I was off doing something else," he said correcting himself. "But he works for me, so by proxy I got you all that stuff. I deserve some leeway here."

"That 'something else' you were doing ended up apparently putting us in the crosshairs," Holland reminded him. "Whether or not it revealed a potential danger, said danger wouldn't have existed in the first place if we had more control over this situation, but we did not. We left it in your hands and it became a clusterfuck. If it weren't for Commander Shepard, who knows what would've happened. So if you want your leeway, as it were, you need to start giving us all the facts beforehand."

"So you can refuse my ideas and decide how to run my shit?" Zek asked, laughing derisively. "I find that a very crappy arrangement."

"Alright, stop for a second," Shepard spoke up.

The Commander walked in between the two groups and looked at them both.

"This is a joint venture, if you remember," Shepard reminded them all, Zek in particular. "We're stuck in this situation together. Everything we do impacts others. Zek, I understand your position, but try to recognize you don't share it alone. As long as we're working together, we need to be open about our intentions. Not so we can get in each other's way, but so we can actually plan as a unified alliance effectively."

Haverson nodded as did Holland and Cortana.

"That's exactly my point, Commander," Haverson declared. "We need to work as a unit for this to work at all."

"Well I need to know I'm not getting railroaded or bossed around," Zek added. "I'm the captain of my ship, I deserve some damn respect and the ability to make my own decisions for my crew."

"Can't say I disagree with that myself," Varvok concurred. "Being open is one thing, but I also want to know my input is valued as much as any human's or Shepard's."

Holland made a noise in his throat, a mixture of frustration and acceptance. His shoulders eventually eased up.

"Fine, I respect your positions as fellow Commanders of your respective forces," he declared. "From now on though, if we're going to make decisions, you're going to report in. You're going to keep us better informed. With these new pirates on our tail, it's imperative we retain a strong front against them and other potential enemy attacks. Regardless, I'd still prefer if I knew exactly why things went to hell down there and what the reason for it was."

Shepard looked over to Taq, who was near the back of the group. She forced her way up front and looked Holland and Haverson dead in the eye.

"I'm the reason more or less," she admitted. "Zek was saving my life, after he kinda put it in danger."

Zek groaned a bit in annoyance, but everyone more or less ignored him.

"And you are?" Holland asked.

"Taq," she replied simply.

"Another pirate?" Haverson asked.

"Archaeologist," she corrected. "Or Tomb Raider, depends on how you look at it."

"Trust me, sirs," Shepard told them. "You really want to see this."

Taq placed the tiny pyramid on the table with a thunk. Cortana looked at it in surprise.

"That's a Forerunner data module," she discerned instantly. "In fairly good condition I might add."

"Indeed it is," Taq confirmed. "It's what Zhoc, or Snarlbeak as you know him, wanted. More specifically, he wanted what it reveals."

She tapped the top of the pyramid and instantly it opened. A holographic display appeared over their heads, revealing a magnificent display of stars and planets. There were several lines and bits of information encoded all over the image. Cortana herself eyed the information frantically.

"This is amazing," she declared. "Colonel Holland, this appears to be starchart of some unknown system. And it is detailing what appears to be routes for an interstellar convoy."

"You're pretty quick on the uptake, little synth," Taq complimented. "I was worried I'd have to explain the whole deal."

"Let's just say that I've had a lot of experience with Forerunner technology and data recently," the AI informed her. "Now why exactly is a pirate interested in this sort of find? He can't attack an ancient convoy or abandoned spacelane."

"No," Taq admitted, pointing at the image. "But take a closer look at that starchart. Notice one of the tracking lines?"

Taq pointed her little claw to ship tracker waypoint that just suddenly stopped in the middle of an unknown system. Everything else kept going, but this one line just stopped. Taq fiddled with the pyramid a bit, getting a close up on said system where the tracking ended abruptly. What it revealed was a vital piece of data that made everything clear.

The image of a Forerunner vessel, enormous in size given the stated specs. It was surrounded by a number of small planets and moons. Beneath it's image were series of symbols, lined out in red. Cortana only took a few moments to decipher.

"Loss of tracking," she read. "Vessel Distress Beacon Lost. Unresponsive to hails. Vessel presumed lost."

"For whatever reason, that Forerunner ship crashed," Taq said, picking up where Cortana left off. "It went down in this unchartered system, with every hand on board."

"They could've sent out a distress party or something to recover them," suggested Haverson.

"No, they didn't send anyone after it," Taq insisted. "The data is a bit corroded, but from what I gather this convoy of ships, spread out across this cluster of systems, was some kind of emergency flight deal. They needed to get away fast, no stopping for anything or anyone. It says so right here, on this line."

She pointed to a series of symbols further down.

"It says, retrieval denied," she explained. "They left it behind and carried on with their mission."

"What mission?" Holland asked. "What were they transporting?"

"A ton of stuff, it's why Zhoc wants the wreck," Taq continued. "Weapons, cultural artifacts, data on Forerunner history, all kinds of crazy ancient tech. It's all recorded on the datastream's cargo manifesto for the ship. They had to report what they just lost. But really, all that junk I just mentioned? Small fry compared to the real jewel."

She opened the manifesto attachment and scrolled to the top of the list, marked under priority. She pointed to a single item.

"Read it," she ordered Cortana.

Cortana didn't like how pushy she was being, but she complied. Her eyes went wide when she finsihed scanning it.

"It's a bit degraded," she admitted. "But it says... artifact of power."

"What's that?" Holland asked.

Haverson himself seemed taken aback.

"I wasn't in the xeno studies department of ONI, but I've heard that phrase before," he stated, concern and amazement growing in his voice. "It's usually attributed to very specific Forerunner Artifacts, very powerful ones."

"This ONI of yours certainly knows what they speak of," Taq added. "It often refers to something seriously coveted by the Forerunners. So much so, they never specifically stated it's exact name when transporting one for fear of it being stolen. One such artifact was on this ship and whatever it was, it was deemed valuable enough, perhaps dangerous enough, to stick on a boat and try to ferry it to safety along with a ton of others."

"If it was so valuable, why didn't they try to get it back?" Haverson asked.

"I think I might know, sir," Shepard informed him grimly. "They might not have had time to try. This whole secret emergency escape convoy, it sounds like they were running from something. And we only know of one thing the Forerunner were afraid of."

A grim silence fell over the room as everyone soon realized what Shepard was talking about.

"The Flood," Cortana said aloud, ending the quiet. "They were probably trying to keep these things from falling into their hands."

"Yes, Zek told me about them," Taq added. "They sound sufficiently scary. But right now, the only two entities after this artifact are Snarlbeak's pirates and the Covenant. I stole this little module from one of their dig sites. Chances are, they're scouring the galaxy for this wreck already. I doubt you want them getting a hold of it. And you really don't want Zhoc to get it either."

"With the information in our hands the chances of them doing that are remote," Holland noted.

"Don't be so sure, sir," Shepard cautioned. "There might be other Forerunner sites with this information on hand. Hell, there's a distinct possibility they might have already found one back where I'm from. Liara contacted me earlier today. She and her team hit a major archaeological site the Covenant are getting their allies to dig up for them. It was Forerunner in nature, sir. If this ship was trying to escape the Flood, it might have been headed to my dimension to do so."

Holland was now taken aback by the information, shaking his head in concern.

"If that's the case, then they've already got a head start on us in terms of information and where to look," he reasoned, rubbing his chin worriedly. "They could be on the trail of these artifacts as we speak, closing in."

"There's more, Liara also uncovered something prior to our first contact," Shepard added, his tone growing more serious. "She said that the Covenant were looking for a second ship back in this dimension. What if this is it? What if the first one put them onto the trail of the artifacts in my dimension and this is just the next piece of the puzzle."

"If these artifacts are as powerful as suggested, any of them could be used as a weapon," Haverson quickly reasoned. "From the sound of things, they're trying to build up an arsenal."

"Then we need to do the same," Holland concluded, slamming his fist down into his palm. "Shepard's friend Liara seems to be handling things on her end. We might as well do our part."

Taq took the pyramid suddenly, the holographic image shutting down.

"I've studied this map and the Forerunners extensively," she explained bluntly. "I have a good idea where to start looking for that wreck in the system. I'm willing to help you, Ocean knows I don't want Zhoc to get his hands on this prize. I was going to get a crew together myself to go after it, but now I'm stuck with you. I need allowances, a deal, a contract."

Haverson and Holland looked to each other briefly, but Cortana spoke up first before they could.

"What exactly do you want?" She asked the Jackal.

"Simple, my cut," she informed them with an authoritative and stern tone. "This information is incredibly valuable, my services are incredibly valuable. My terms are very reasonable, I want a sizable sum comparable to seventy-five million credits. I want my own ship, supplied to me by you. I want to be supplied for this venture., with men and material. And I want your protection, from Zhoc and anyone else currently after me for this intel."

Holland and Haverson looked at each other. They huddled together and started discussing matters. It was a tense few moments of silence. Eventually, Holland came to a decision.

"We'll draw up a contract," he agreed. "It might take awhile for you to get everything you want, specifically the money. But, if your information and expertise does bear fruit, I will make sure the UNSC compensates you for your time and effort."

"That's all I ask," Taq assured. "Thank you."

She bowed her head solemnly for a moment. Meanwhile, Shepard's mind was preoccupied with his own series of concerns. The Covenant were after ancient weapons, both here and back home. Weapons powerful enough that they could change the course of this war. Knowing that the Reapers were pulling the strings of the Covenant, that just made things worse. It seemed they had stumbled into something big, a race against time to get as many of these artifacts as possible. Of course, not everyone saw the dire straits they now found themselves in. Zek, was comparably more excited as he jumped up and exclaimed to the whole room aloud:

"Treasure hunt, ho, boy and girls! We're all fucking pirates now! HA HA HA!"

Retz, seemingly prepared, just handed Zek a bottle of ichor to celebrate the occasion. Taq just looked on embarrassed, her face in her claws.

"Holy fuck, I slept with this idiot," she mumbled, walking away with Holland to hammer out her contract.

Meanwhile, Zek started singing... while drinking.

"Yo ho, yo ho, a Pirate's life for me! We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot, drink up me 'earties, yo ho! Come on everybody!"

Everyone slowly tried to work their way out of the room, while Retz joined his friend in song, going through the next couple of verses at max volume. Shepard somewhat regretted letting the Jackals see those vids. Their species apparently wasn't, to say the least, great singers. He kept his fingers in his ears as the briefing room cleared out, unfortunately, Zek followed after them.

"We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack, drink up me 'earties, yo ho! Maraud and embezzle and even hijack! Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!"

Cortana was left alone with Chief, she also was shaking her head.

"This is going to be a thing, I can tell," she grumbled.

"Best get used to it, I think," Chief warned. "Like he said, we're all pirates now."

"Joy," Cortana groaned. "I'll get my eye patch and parrot out of storage in anticipation."

Even now they could still hear Zek's jubilant carousing, almost mocking in it's tone. Like despite everything, he had somehow still won. And Cortana imagined that really did not help Holland's opinion of him, or anyone's for that matter.

"Yo ho, yo ho," he sang, his voice echoing through the ship. "A pirate's life for me!"

* * *

AN: So that's chapter five. I'd like to report that we do have a new TV Tropes Page for this story. Everyone please thank Crow for it. He's been having a ton of computer troubles lately, he deserves a lot of credit for getting it up. It's barebones for now, but knowing you guys that won't last long once you get your keyboard on it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter and all the crazy antics that Zek got up to. Now we finally have a stated goal for the heroes to strive for, a Forerunner artifact! That's gonna be a big deal, believe me. If you want to learn more, go check out my profile for a link to my blog for a behind the scenes look at this chapter. And do leave a review if you can.

And to get to the TV Tropes page, please paste this next to their address on their main page:

/Fanfic/Remnants

The problem is I apparently share my story's name with another legit book. Whoops. Oh well. Probably should consider changing it, but we'll see.


	7. Rough Waters Ahead

**Chapter Six: Rough Waters Ahead**

 _Life is a Disease, the Only Cure is Rock n Roll_

 _-Anonymous_

It was the early hours before the end of the sleep cycle for the barracks. Kowalski was sound asleep, expecting his dreams to be interrupted by Sergeant Johnson forcing everyone awake. Sleeping without a cryopod on a spaceship had taken some getting used to. The overcrowded conditions of the _Autumn_ had forced the issue though, and he had eased into it. It was just like at boot camp again, also fewer weird dreams. That was sort of a loss, but oh well. At least waking up wasn't much different, it was just as sudden. This morning though, the wake up call was unexpected. For Kowalski found his slumber broken, not by Sergeant Johnson's shouting, but someone screaming accompanied by a guitar riff.

 **I WANNA ROCK!**

Kowalski jumped up with a start, hitting his head on the makeshift bunk above his head. He stumbled out of the covers, his head ringing, collapsing to the floor in confusion. As he slowly came to his senses, the ear splitting noise of old rock n' roll music kept screeching at him. He soon found he wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden impromptu morning concert, other Marines and Army Soldiers were startled from their own beds. While not all of them had been as surprised as he was, they all looked just as confused. There was a strange disembodied voice screaming loudly, echoing through the enclosed room, declaring his desire to rock.

"What in the hell?" Asked one soldier.

"Where's it coming from?" A Marine questioned, trying to dig into his ears with a finger.

"I think the intercom system," another Marine pointed upward, while trying to block his own ears.

While they and others chattered, Kowalski could hear the singer continue.

 **Turn it down you say**

 **But all I got to say to you is time and time again I say No!**

 **No! No! No!**

 **Tell me not to play**

 **Well, all I got to say to when you tell me not to play I say No!**

 **No! No! No!**

As Kowalski finally managed to regain his composure, he could see a distinct divide among the room. Some were confused, but not outright disapproving of the music. Other were more sensitive to loud noises and held their hands over their ears. The intercom was after all blasting the damn stuff, whatever it was. In the confines of their bunkroom, it was incredibly loud.

"Cut the intercom!" Someone shouted "For the love of fuck! I can barely hear myself think!"

"Hey come, on," said another, who Kowalski soon identified as Ellingham amidst the chaos. "It's not that bad."

Kowalski walked over to his friend, now standing in the middle of the room nearby. Agley was with him, a bit jumpier than usual. Like most people, he was just trying to figure out what was going on. Of course, his mind went to some more sinister places.

"What if it's some kind of Covie psych warfare," he asked. "Maybe the ship's AI survived Cortana and it's trying to freak us out!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Ellingham said, elbowing him. "The singer is clearly human. Why would the Covenant have human song files on board their ship."

"Well, all their AIs are stolen from us right?" Agley reminded him. "Maybe they found one that had the song uploaded to it."

"Calm down, Agley," Kowalski told him, motioning his hands downward. "I'm sure Cortana isn't one to leave jobs half finished. That AI is dead, there's probably a more likely explanation."

That was when the music got cut off. There were some audible groans of displeasure from half the room, but they were soon silenced by one of the Army Non-Coms over at a control board near the door.

"Quiet down, boys," he shouted. "This is a warship, it ain't a concert hall. Now someone get on the radio to Holland and tell him about this. We need to-"

"Hey!" Shouted one of the Marines suddenly, holding up a headset. "It's playing on one of our secure channels!"

"What!?" The Sergeant growled loudly.

Other Soldiers and Marines, Kowalski included, turned on their own comm-links and found that it was the truth. On a secure channel, not in regular use but still open to them, the music kept playing. It wasn't just intercom, someone was transmitting something through their comm channels. Eager to solve the mystery, but with no desire to go deaf, a few of the enlisted men lugged over a radio kit to one of the tables. Fellow curious Marines and Troopers gathered round as they tuned to the signal and caught the tail end of the song. That was when the culprit was revealed, announcing himself for everyone to hear.

" _Hey everyone out there in this little Fleet of ours, you are listening to BBR, Buzzard Buccaneer Radio! The only Kig-Yar Pirate Rock Station in the known Galaxy! I'm your Rock God DJ, Boz the Buzzard, coming to you live from the Den of Rock, the infamous Fallen Serpent! Home of the baddest band of brigands in this big wide black void we call space!"_

"Fucking Jackals," groaned one of the Marines. "We should've known!"

Now that he thought about it, Kowalski supposed it should've been obvious. Who else would stir up this kind of trouble? He couldn't imagine Commander Shepard or even the Batarians doing something like this. No, if anyone would decide to start screaming old rock tunes from centuries past, it would be the friggin space pirates.

" _You fine people were just listening to the sounds of Twisted Sister, a human group from way back in the 20th, and their awesome single, I Wanna Rock. Boy did they ever!"_ Boz declared happily to his listeners. _"We got plenty more coming up from them within the hour, but first, I wanna introduce you all to some friends of mine. Now, I know us kig-yar haven't had the best relationship with religious types. But I think it's safe to say, that if Priests were like this back in the Covenant, we probably wouldn't have been so quick to stick a plasma torpedo up their asses! This is Judas Priest, 'Hell Bent for Leather' on the number one Pirate Radio Station, BBR!"_

And with that, a new song began and everyone was left with a mixture of confusion, bewilderment and maybe just a little anger among some.

"The fuck are they doing?" Demanded one Marine.

"Playing music apparently," Ellingham said shrugging. "Super old music, sure, but it doesn't sound half bad."

"This is just more proof these crazy birds don't take this shit seriously," growled one of the Troopers. "We're out here, who knows how many lightyears from Earth, and they're blasting fucking ancient rock songs through our damn comm channels! It's like one big fucking party to them!"

"The hell is this ruckus!"

Everyone looked and stood at attention, you did that when Sergeant Avery Johnson walked into the room. He was chomping on a cigar, glaring at everyone. He marched over to the radio, placing his fists on his hips as he eyed it and listened to the "Judas Priest" band that was currently playing. He perched an eyebrow at it and turned to Kowalski.

"Where the hell did you get this, Private?" He demanded.

"We didn't, sir," Kowalski swore attentively. "We picked it up on the intercom. The Jackals are transmitting it over one of our comm channels. It's some kind of... pirate radio station."

Johnson's glare strangely turned to one of bemusement. He took the cigar out of his mouth, looked to the radio then back to Kowalski, soaking it all in.

"Really?" He asked, seemingly intrigued now. "Well, ain't that a development."

Johnson looked to one of the Marines.

"Dubbo, get down to Haverson and report this to him directly," he ordered.

"Right away, Sarge," the Private answered in an Australian accent before taking off.

Johnson then pulled up a chair and sat down next to the table where the radio sat. As he put up his feet, laid his head back and placed the cigar back in his mouth, he seemed to be settling in. Then he glared at the other Marines.

"Well, what are you gawking at?" He demanded to know. "Turn it up!"

Ellingham shrugged and did what the Sergeant said. Johnson seemed to relax as the song started blasting. He had every intention of enjoying this for as long as he could it seemed.

* * *

Zek glared at the screen in his private quarters, shaking his head in despair at what he was watching. How could anyone enjoy this, he thought. It was one of the saddest, most depressing displays one could sit through. A two hour funeral march starring a man who didn't even seem to know what was coming. Worse yet, it seemed like you were supposed to be supporting it without question. It made him want to wretch.

"Oh Falstaff, you stupid lovable bastard," he bemoaned. "He's gonna fucking stab you in the back, man! He's practically telegraphing it to you! Admitting it even! Right to your face! Get out while you can!"

As he was yelling at the holoscreen, both Shepard and Haverson were led into the room by Retz. He looked to them briefly, waving them over to his sitting area. He then returned to the screen, continuing to glower at it.

"Shepard, welcome back," he greeted the two. "And a good morning to you, Lieutenant. Didn't think you'd want to be aboard my ship so soon."

"Neither did I," Haverson said grumbling. "But we have matters to discuss."

"You're damn straight we do," Zek wholeheartedly agreed. "Just take a look at this."

Shepard and Haverson looked to the holoscreen where Zek was pointing. On it they saw turian actors performing a production of a play. The dress code and time period were clearly different, but the dialogue of the portly turian made it clear what it was.

"What is honour? A word. What is in that word **honour**? What is that **honour**? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday."

Shepard instantly recalled the play, Henry IV as re-enacted by the Palaven Players to take place during the Unification Wars instead of Medieval England. No doubt it was among the other vids from the file Retz had stolen. What was curious, was that Zek had suddenly flipped from silly genre films to the classics in the span of a day.

"Shakespeare, huh?" Shepard asked. "I honestly thought you'd be watching more sea monster movies after _Jaws_."

"I kinda got sidetracked," Zek begrudgingly admitted. "I wanted to find some romance vids, personal reasons mostly, and the guy who wrote this had a ton of those. So I put on Romeo & Juliet. Big mistake, as I eventually found out. Seriously, guys, this was one of humanity's greatest storytellers? I think you need to change that codex of yours, Shepard."

"I'm not much of a literary critic," Haverson interjected. "And something tells me I'm going to regret this, but I'm curious, what's wrong with Shakespeare?"

Zek paused the screen and sat up straight in his chair to look Haverson dead in the eye.

"He's terrible! Worse, he's probably a sadist!" Zek argued loudly. "Honestly, in Romeo and Juliet, what were those families fighting about anyway? It was never really clear. Was it money? Someone kill someone? And regardless of the reason, it all seemed so fucking petty."

"I kinda think that was sorta the point," Haverson suggested.

"Well if stupidity was the point, mission accomplished," Zek declared. "The two most powerful families in the city wasting their time with a petty squabble over nothing. They wasted valuable resources, time and energy bickering like fledglings over table scraps. They could've easily combined their forces through a mating ceremony between their two kids. They wanted it bad enough. Worse yet, we go through all that struggle and the two kids kill themselves! What kind of love story is that? They should've fled the city, become bandits, fucked the system. Instead they kill each other because, what, they couldn't think of better options? Even faking their deaths would've been better than that!"

"They're teenagers," Shepard countered plainly. "They don't usually plan that far ahead."

"Me and Retz did when we were teens," Zek replied with a huff. "You have to think ahead, it's the only way to get ahead. I'm getting the impression human kids are just fucking stupid."

A lot of people would probably agree with Zek on that, but Shepard wasn't about to voice that. Especially when it looked like the Jackal Pirate was on the cusp of a rant. Best to let him get it all out.

"I actually tried to give your Shakey a pass on that," he continued grunting. "I figure, everyone has a bad story now and then. But no, play after play, just the most depressing, depraved, badly written shit, even by my standards. Titus was loaded with senseless gore for one. I half expected a blood orgy to break out. Not to mention a father who kills his daughter the second it's confirmed she was raped. Who does that to their kid? What? Is she broken because some bastards forced themselves on her? Gotta kill her now because if she ain't a virgin she isn't worth having around?"

"He did kill her rapists as I recall," Haverson noted.

"Oh, should I give him a medal then?" Zek asked sardonically, before he tone returned to a more accusatory stance. "He fed them to their mother, how fun. Not that she didn't deserve it, but he went and killed his daughter anyway! The only character in the play, mind you, that wasn't a freaking asshole. I don't mean to sound prudish here, I don't shy away from violence, but it has to have a wider purpose. Honor killings and vendettas are what the sangheili do. It was basically a whole story about some dipshit who shot himself in the foot because he's an idiot and then murders everyone in a needlessly violent bloodbath. There was no style to that revenge plot, nothing subtle about it. If Titus was a better character he would've gotten them to kill each other and he also wouldn't have murdered his own flesh and blood in the process. As it stands he's just a sangheili with a jiralhanae mindset. Boring."

Shepard hadn't expected that kind of reaction from Zek in regards to the violence. He seemed to have liked the Gremlins and their rampage well enough. Giving it more thought, Shepard supposed the chaos the Gremlins represented was different from the more ordered violence and extreme cruelty that were on display in Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare had made that play specifically to appeal to the lower classes with it's emphasis on shock value. From what he was getting though, the politics involved in the story had turned Zek off from the violence this time. The mindless destruction of the Gremlins was something to revel in, Titus' honor based bloody revenge was just something he couldn't seem to get behind.

"And on the subject of revenge, Hamlet," Zek continued, still fuming. "What a shit show that was. It was like an inept comedy, but at some point it became less funny and just sad. Seriously, we watch this whiny little bastard basically complain for hours about how he wishes he were dead essentially. It takes him for-fucking-ever to actually get his revenge plot into motion and he totally fucks it up! It's the biggest anti-climax I've ever seen! The only thing more disappointing was that Midsummer's Night thing. You go in, expecting these horny kids to get into a massive drugged out orgy, and they fumble around for the next hour or so resisting the primal urge! Then, almost as if they expected you to be pissed, they have Puck, the only fun character in the whole ordeal by the way, come out and practically beg you to forgive them for their shit story."

"You watched all of these?" Haverson asked curiously.

"I had a lot of free time after that shit went down on the Hollow," he answered quickly, returning the subject at hand without skipping a beat. "I haven't even gotten to the worst offenses. Taming of the Shrew almost took the cake on being the most disgusting thing of the night. You basically watch some douchebag who doesn't know the importance of a strong female and teaches her to be this meek, mild, plaything to show off to people. Do you have any idea how absolutely appalling that is? If it weren't for the females, our society would have no direction at all. The codes and guidelines we live by would be utterly useless. But apparently in Shakey's time, being a female was basically a crime in of itself. I swear, if the asshole in that play had tried any of that shit with our women, well, he'd be floating face down in a body of water by morning, if not spaced altogether."

Shepard wasn't too surprised by his opinion of that play. Everything he knew about Jackals suggested they had a matriarchal society. A lot like the salarians, except their females weren't considered delicate or too valuable to risk. If Taq was any indication, they were as tough, vicious and hungry for profit as any male in their species. He struggled though to think what Zek would find worse than Shakespearian Sexism. Then it became obvious.

"That was before I saw Merchant of Venice though," the pirate declared, speaking the title with almost venomous hatred. "What an absolutely dreadful piece of work."

"Appalling in so many ways, sir," Retz spoke up in agreement. "If I could, I'd have reached through the screen to throttle the so-called protagonists myself."

It didn't take much thinking for Shepard to guess why Zek would probably hate that particular play. Zek confirmed his hypothesis almost immediately.

"It just seemed to revel in it's absolute deplorable behavior," the pirate exclaimed. "They cheated an honest businessman out of his well-deserved payment. And how? Not by any true gamesmanship, but by rigging the system against him! Putting some friend of the accused as the judge, in disguise no less, just so she could use a bunch of nonsense legal jargon to completely fuck over this poor guy. He was rightly owed that pound of flesh! If they couldn't pay him back than they shouldn't have tried to make a deal with that kind of stipulation! And then, as if they hadn't gotten enough of their jollies from ripping the guy off from the money he was owed fair and square, they threaten to kill him unless he converts to their stupid religion! These assholes are the heroes? The fuck kind of messed-up morality is that?"

"This is exactly why we don't have justice systems like that," Retz added, seemingly equally angry at the memory of the scene. "They give too many people the ability to cheat others out of contracts they agreed to. If they wanted to avoid paying him their flesh so bad, they should've come up with a scheme to get the money back in time. It's not worth playing the game if you're not being fair. Using a damn court-based legal system is one thing, rigging said court in your favor is even worse. It's despicable, downright un-sporting in fact."

"And they spent so much time trying to make us hate the guy too," Zek continued, still in a rage. "Seriously, what the fuck did he do? Being good with money and being an honest businessman is a crime now? Fuck those people, they treated him like scum for a fucking contract they themselves signed! They should be fucking grateful for the fucking loan in the first place!"

Shepard briefly wondered if he really should start explaining the long history of Anti-Semitism on Earth. About how the character was a Jew and how they were viewed as greedy and corrupt in Shakespeare's time. However, he decided against it. Not only would it be way too much time spent on something Zek probably wouldn't understand anyway, it probably wouldn't do much to change his opinion on the play. Hell, Shepard had to admit he didn't like that one much himself for similar reasons.

Given Zek's history, it made a lot of sense he took issue with 'Merchant of Venice' in particular. After all, he had been forced to join a religion against his will too. The play had no doubt churned up some pretty bad memories. Zek's sympathies clearly lied more with the people Shakespeare counted as villains and rogues. A pattern that wasn't lost on Haverson either.

"I'm assuming you have a problem with Henry IV Part One on similar lines," the Lieutenant asked, looking briefly at the holoscreen and the frozen image of the turian playing Falstaff.

"You're a smart man, Haverson," Zek said appreciatively. "It's almost exactly the same problem. This Hal guy, he joins these common rogues, makes friends with Falstaff here and spends the entire fucking production basically laying out how he's going to fuck the poor guy over. And why? So he can step over him and claim the crown while looking like a fucking big shot!"

"You have a problem with backstabbing now?" Haverson asked.

"I have a problem with telegraphing it so clearly to a man's face, basically admitting he's there to use him as a stepping stone for his rise to power," Zek clarified righteously. "It's like watching a snuff film! I'm looking at a man who thinks this guy is his friend and he just doesn't get that he's about to be betrayed so this dipshit pretender can make himself look better! I'm supposed to be looking forward to that? It's horrible! Absolutely horrible! Falstaff let him in, showed him the ropes, basically did everything for him and he's about to throw him to the wolves when he gets on the throne. Trust is a valuable commodity among the kig-yar, we do not hand it out lightly. The fact Falstaff trusts and believes in his friend so completely here, follows him everywhere, does what he says, and Hal never wavers in his plan to clearly fuck him over is a disgrace!"

"Your friends and crew should never be treated as such without due cause," Retz explained further, his tone icy and cold. "Betrayal is one thing if it comes from changes in the wind. Approaching others with the full intent of destroying them later, never sharing in the spoils of your victory, is downright low. It's bad business, it's bad form, it's not how the game is played."

"If Shakespeare was a Shipmaster, he'd have found himself on the other end of an airlock before too long," Zek concluded, a similar icy glare as he spoke. "Hell, he'd be lucky if they didn't just maroon him on a planet full of vicious animals. The fact he endorses this kind of behavior is proof enough of his skewed logic and shitty ethics. Truly, he came from a very barbaric time in your history. You'd be better off if you discarded his wretched works entirely."

This had not been how Shepard had thought this conversation would go. Zek did not strike him at first as a theater critic after all. His tirades against the Bard were not without some interesting insight into the Jackal mind-set though. If nothing else it showed that, despite their reputation, there were some guidelines to how the species conducted themselves. However, it was completely off track from their real purpose here.

"As lovely as this conversation on theater has been, it's not why we came here," Haverson informed the pirate. "It's about one of your crewmates, Boz the Buzzard to be precise."

Zek angered expression suddenly changed, his thoughts of the Bard vanishing near instantly. In their place was joyful smile and a slight glow of admiration in his voice.

"Ah yes, Boz," he recalled fondly. "Nice kid, adventurous spirit, loves the action, not the best fighter though. Mostly just wanted a change of location. Big music junkie, crew was always catching him singing to himself in communications. Hard worker though, knows his way around the comm-channels."

"And now he's running his own radio show on our secure frequencies," Haverson added, not sounding as enthusiastic about the situation. "I'm guessing you authorized that."

"You wanted inter-ship communications to be more open, this was my way of accomplishing that," Zek answered, for once not trying to deny anything. "If you're not big on his music choices, you can always call in and make a request. I specifically told him to keep the lines open for anyone with a connection to contact him and do just that."

"We aren't really concerned about Boz's musical tastes," Shepard clarified. "It's security that's really the concern here. We just need to be sure this isn't dangerous."

Zek sighed a bit, seemingly in frustration. To his credit he kept his cool. While his smile wasn't as big as before, it remained plastered across his beak. He had probably been expecting this conversation at some point from the look of it.

"Listen, I'm not an idiot, okay?" He tried to reassure. "Pirates like myself know the importance of secure lines of communication. We don't want people hacking our network and finding out we're waiting for them around the next nebula or moon. BBR's signal is secure, it can only be picked up on the wavelengths designated for it's use. You weren't using that frequency for anything, so I decided it would be the best choice. And for added security, we have a scrambler installed into the console rig. Anyone who picks up that signal without special codes on their comm-rig is just going to hear static. It's only tuned to our ships, no one else is going to be able to use it to find us."

"Are you sure of that?" Haverson asked. "What if someone circumvents those codes? Or passes them along to our enemies? Hell, anyone could probably sneak into that radio station and beam a transmission if they wanted to."

"Lieutenant, please, Retz has already thought about all that," Zek promised. "They can't beam a transmission out through the radio unless they get through the scrambler, which only I have the code to. Which I also change every other day. Anyone who tries that is just going to beam white noise into a person's ears. Like I said, we're not stupid."

Haverson didn't look entirely convinced, crossing his arms and continuing to glare at the pirate.

"And why exactly should I trust in your security measures?" He asked bluntly.

"Because I'm still holding out hope you'll give me the _Ascendant Justice_ after we reach your Earth," Zek explained rather plainly. "At the very least as a token of gratitude for all the trouble I've put myself through for you humans. You really think I want to risk losing the biggest ship I've scored in my career because of some blabbermouth getting a hold of Boz's console? I'd prefer to keep the Carrier in working order, thank you very much."

That seemed a good enough reason for Haverson, who slightly eased up his confrontational stance.

"You could have at least run this by us first," he informed the Jackal.

"Our arrangement said I have full control over the affairs of my ship, at least as far as I recall," Zek snapped back at him. "Buzzard Buccaneer Radio's station is aboard my ship. It exists to give the rest of our flotilla an open window into life aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ and provides the men in your service an opportunity to converse openly with us. Boz is our representative of Kig-yar culture to humanity. Also technically your culture's past too, considering most of the things on his playlist currently."

"I would still like to keep informed about your security measures nonetheless," Haverson informed him. "And given that some of the men don't mind it, you're free to blast your music as loud as you want, so long as it doesn't put us at risk. Fair warning though, don't expect everyone that calls into the Buzzard's little show to be as forthcoming as you hope. Marines, ODSTs, Army troopers, they are generally a lot less democratic than me."

"How shocking," Zek said, smirking sarcastically. "I honestly never thought there could be anyone more a pain in the ass than you, Lieutenant. I'll tell Boz to keep your warning in mind, rest assured. If you have any other requests, feel free to contact him personally. I'm sure there's something he has you'd enjoy listening to. It is mostly your people's music after all."

Haverson didn't take the pirate's bait. He snorted a bit, nodded at Shepard to show he was satisfied and began to leave.

"I'll see myself out," he assured Retz as he past.

"Pleasure having you," Zek said waving goodbye.

When the door slid closed though and Haverson was well and truly gone, Zek's faux smile and cheerful hand both dropped instantly.

"Prick," the Jackal said, before spitting off to the side. "You know, I always wondered if humans had their own version of the sangheili. There's my answer."

"You could stand to be a little less confrontational," Shepard informed him. "He's just doing his job."

"His job isn't to tell me how to do mine," Zek growled in return. "He wants his stupid reports, he'll get them. But I don't appreciate him storming onto this ship to make such demands. I'm doing what he and Holland wanted, I'm trying to make us more approachable and less isolated. I'm trying to show the UNSC what we are. That we are more than open to a partnership of sorts. And yet, I'm still getting guff."

"Believe it or not, Haverson and Holland are willing to work with you," Shepard informed him bluntly. "They're not what you think they are. They aren't the Elites in different packaging. They don't really care whether or not you believe in their Gods and they're not looking to subjugate you. They're just looking for someone that they can rely on."

Zek looked up at Shepard, his neck stretching out slightly with eyes wide.

"I am reliable!" He declared, placing a hand on his chest, sounding almost offended. "I'm more than worth my word, you should know that by now. I got you those supplies, I got you a new ship, I got you off Halo before all of that, what more do you want? And don't say helping you defeat the Covenant, we're not having that conversation again."

"The problem is your priorities are stepping over theirs quite a bit," Shepard explained. "Being more open with your agendas is a start, but we're not going to get anywhere if you don't consider some compromising. The point of an alliance is that everyone benefits from the whole. I would think you would appreciate that concept more than anyone."

Zek looked around shiftily for a moment, eventually shrugging as he sat back in his chair.

"With any luck this business with this relic we've pinpointed can get you into their good graces," Shepard tried to reassure him. "Show them you take their mission seriously. It will go a long way, trust me. Now, I should go. I need to get back to the _Normandy_."

"Very well, Shepard, I won't keep you," Zek replied sighing. "I need to find a better vid, any vid really that doesn't make me feel as depressed as this crap."

Shepard left the room, while Zek started looking through the media file once more. As he was scrolling through the list of titles, Retz approached him, a willy look in his eye.

"The Commander might have a point, sir," he said casually. "We can't really expect Holland and his Marines to just accept us with open arms at this point. We need to start showing them that we can provide a service if we want to prove our value."

"We've done that," Zek insisted. "Not listing everything else, thanks to me and Taq, they have a bead on a possible threat to their war effort. We're getting them a potential superweapon. If this doesn't make them like us, I don't know what will."

"We shouldn't put all our hopes on Taq's fabled wreck getting us more respect, Zek," Retz warned. "Technically it is still her claim. To be honest, we'll be lucky if we get a finder's fee on this. We need to stack the deck in our favor here, something we can provide directly that they would appreciate, but we could still potentially profit from in the long run."

Zek scratched the underside of his beak, nodding slowly. It made sense, show the humans their value as actual partners. It was his original plan all along. There was one clear problem though.

"But what do they want?" He asked aloud. "What service could we provide?"

"Well," Retz began cautiously, "the major thing they seem to want, as far as I can tell anyway, is hurting the Covenant."

Zek just groaned.

"We're trying to avoid getting sucked back into this war, Retz," he reminded his friend.

"I know, but hear me out here," Retz said, trying to clarify his meaning. "We don't have to engage a fleet or slaughter an army. We can provide them with information, intelligence, a means to strike at the Covenant and hurt them sufficiently. We could offer our services in helping them achieve this end and, of course, make off with a potential profit for ourselves. We'd have to be open about it with them, at least as a way to properly detail terms. We'd still be providing them with a means to hurt their enemy though. How could they pass that up?"

Zek was suddenly intrigued and he knew Retz wouldn't suggest any of this just out of the blue. No, his friend had a plan, if not a target already in mind. A good old fashioned snatch and grab raid from the sound of things. That put a grin on his face once more.

"You got a lead on a job?" He asked Retz knowingly.

"It's tantalizing, to say the least," Retz assured. "If the information from my contacts is accurate, it could certainly win us some legitimate praise for once. Better yet, it's not that far off our current course. In the grand scheme of the Covenant war effort, it's probably not much to be honest. However, it would be a nice way to show them the potential of a working partnership."

Zek's grin grew wide at that. Chuckling slightly, he bumped his friend's shoulder in approval.

"Make it happen," he ordered. "But more importantly make sure it's a solid deal. We can't have another screw-up like the Hollow."

"I'll make sure of it, sir," Retz promised.

"Good, in the meantime, let's watch something less insulting," Zek declared, turning back to the media file on his datapad. "Let's see if this Ultraman series Ms. Goto recommended is worthwhile."

* * *

" _Quiet Riot, Cum on Feel the Noize, that's Noise with a Z by the way, dear listeners,"_ Boz's voice chirped on the radio. _"Gotta love a band that likes plays on words and puns that much, especially involving a sex act. Also the ironic band name is a nice touch. Humans, clever primates aren't they? Jiralhanae couldn't think this shit up. Anyway, I hope you liked that number, we got another coming up. First though, let's go to the comm-board for a bit cause we got caller. Hello, you are on the air with Boz the Buzzard!"_

" _Awesome, this is Sigz in Navigation, you have no idea how good it is to have some real music for once,"_ another Jackal's voice spoke up. _"I can see why the Covenant want to wipe out humanity now. They're better at making sweet tunes and they're embarrassed as fuck."_

" _Completely agree, Sigz,"_ Boz responded jubilantly. _"But I'd like to assure some of listeners out there, we got some classic shanties coming up as well. Wouldn't be a Pirate Radio station if we neglected those. So, Sigz, you got any requests for our next song?"_

" _Oh geez, not sure, uh,"_ the Jackal caller struggled slightly. _"You got anything that hits you like a bolt of lighting in the middle of a raging sea?"_

" _Buddy, we got plenty of that and I think I know just what to play,"_ Boz assured his listener. _"They named themselves after alternating electrode currents and with good reason. They are a shock to your system! This is AC/DC! Thunderstruck!"_

Kat turned the radio's audio output down before slowly rising pounding the rock music could drown out her thoughts. She had nothing against the classics, but having them blasting constantly in her ears all day got grating. She preferred the sound of her own thoughts, not guitar solos. Although not everyone had the same opinion of course, including aliens.

"Don't turn it too low," Tali requested. "It's soothing."

"Heavy Metal is soothing?" Kat asked confused.

"Loud noises more than anything," Tali clarified. "The Flotilla back home is always noisy. I've gotten used to the more quiet ships, but honestly, the music centers me a little. Helps me focus."

Tali went back to work with the other alien in the Med-Bay, an Engineer. The floating living supercomputer was taking up a significant portion of the corner of the room. Doctor Chakwas was allowing Tali to rent the space for the moment to run a few tests on the creature. There was little anyone truly understood about the Engineers, or Huragoks as everyone else called them. Tali was hopeful that learning more would help them greatly, specifically with a few side projects the quarian was working on. First she needed data though, and that what all these scans with the medical equipment was for. While she gave the tentacled gasbag tasks to complete, she tried to get some readings on it's biology and cognitive functions.

Kat had just come over for a chat, maybe a friendly bite to ear. Now though, things were a bit more interesting. She should've guessed the quarian would be all over these Engineers prior to her arrival. That she'd want to learn how to utilize them to the ship's benefit. After all, she would probably be doing the same thing if she had access to the creatures.

Tali was probably the only other person outside of Jun and the other Spartans she could truly consider a friend. The quarian and her were a lot alike, although initially she did want to admit it, but it was true. They both had extremely inquisitive minds, a desire to figure out how things work and a love of tech in all it's forms. She probably wasn't as outwardly passionate or emotional about it as the quarian, but that was neither here nor there. Point was, she was the only being, Spartan or otherwise, who she felt could keep up with her. Also, she had provided her with a new cybernetic arm, so there was that too.

"By the way, AC/DC is technically not a Metal band," the quarian corrected Kat suddenly as she continued to set up the next scan. "They're a Hard Rock group with elements of the Blues heavily influencing their work. Although they share a lot in common with Metal groups of the the 1970s, it's more accurate to say they influenced them rather than belonging to the genre."

Kat cocked an eyebrow in a bit of confusion at that. With her helmet off, her bemusement was readily apparent to Tali. The quarian caught herself, giggling a bit at how she had gotten carried away.

"Shepard's a bit of a music buff," she explained herself, clearly smiling under her mask. "A lot of BBR's playlist was originally uploaded into that file by him. He was very insistent on sharing some of the history."

No doubt, Kat thought. She could've gone deeper into that subject, but no. She wasn't going to pry into Tali's personal life. That was her business after all. Although honestly, she kind of wished she didn't dance around the issue so much. Pretty much every Spartan knew what was going on between her and the Commander. Just because they weren't big on romance didn't mean they were blind.

But while Tali's knowledge and affinity for human music was a little understandable, Kat was still baffled by how quickly the Jackals had latched onto it. Sure, Rock certainly seemed to fit their collective personalities. It was loud, fast and celebrated chaos more often than not. What she knew about their species suggested those were qualities they believed in. There were still aliens though and it seemed weird that they'd be so quick to pick up human culture. She could appreciate the music, at least in a cultural sense. After all, ever since the revival of Classic Metal in the 2470s, Rock music in general had been fully accepted as a legitimate form of artistic expression. Full Orchestral Concerts with electric guitars were a regular thing now for humanity. The Jackals didn't have the same history or connection with these songs though. So why had they picked it up so quickly?

She wasn't a xeno studies major, she didn't have the answer. Perhaps though, another alien did. Kat watched as Tali placed a few spent thermal clips in front of the Engineer for the next test. As the gasbag got to work and the quarian prepared the scan, Kat made her move.

"So what is your honest opinion on this radio station of theirs?" She asked aloud. "Besides it offering something worth listening to while you work."

"If Zek and his men want to listen to some music and wish to share it with all of us, I see no problem," the quarian responded earnestly. "As long as it doesn't affect security or endanger the ship, just let them have their fun. Honestly, Zek has done way worse than creating a radio station. I think we can all agree on that."

"Still, why?" Kat asked, voicing her evident curiosity towards the move. "I can somewhat see the morale boosting capabilities, but why this music? Why this and not something they've created themselves?"

Tali stopped in the middle of her work and turned to Kat. She looked a bit more downcast, a little more distant. With a sad little sigh, she put her best answer forward.

"Truthfully? Probably because they don't have much else," she explained, her tone low and a little depressed. "This might sound a bit odd, but from what I've heard about them, I sort of relate. My people practically lost their entire culture when we were exiled. We have very little of what our people were before that time. Before we became outcasts. We got lucky, we weren't subjugated. Zek, his crew, his people, not so lucky. They've had a lot of what they were stomped out, deliberately, for a lot longer than the quarians in fact. They need something to fill that void. Something to replace what was lost. To speak to their emotions and express who they are. These human films and songs, they gravitate to them because they do just that."

Kat hadn't thought about that angle, about how Tali might have something in common with the Jackals of all aliens. She wasn't sure she was as sympathetic to Zek and his people on the same level, but her quarian friend had a point she couldn't ignore. When you lost something, it left a hole. She knew that in more ways than one. Trying to fill that hole was difficult and not always the easiest of transitions either.

Was their culture really that badly subjugated? Really that trodden upon? In all honesty, she had never really thought of the subordinate species of the Covenant as victims, not in that way anyhow. In the end, she supposed she couldn't judge the Jackals too harshly for desiring something to replace what they lost. If bits of human culture helped in that regard, well all the better. Though that didn't make them any less a bunch of disreputable criminals, they were pirates after all.

"I suppose I can understand that," she admitted aloud. "And it does sound like it's making them appreciate what humanity can offer. You know, outside of being potential customers I mean."

"Peace has to start somewhere, Kat," Tali argued simply, shrugging as she did. "Sharing your music for free is a new one, but it seems to be paying off so far."

Kat just nodded and Tali returned to her work. Deciding to get the whole bizarre business of Boz the Buzzard out of her mind, the Spartan directed her attention to the Engineer in the room.

"So, what have the scans picked up on your new crew member?" She asked Tali.

"Hard to say really," she admitted. "I'm mostly just compiling notes and hoping Mordin can shed some more light on what I find. I'd leave it all up to him if it didn't involve as much technical knowledge as it does biology."

As Tali spoke, the Engineer raised it's tentacle. Within it was a thermal clip which it placed in Tali's hand most graciously. In it's other tendrils it held other thermal clips and every single one of them appeared to be fully functional again, as if they had never been used. Tali held up the one in her hand to Kat's face.

"Look at that," she declared. "I gave it nothing but a few clips and somehow it managed to recycle them all anyway. No special equipment, no tools, all by itself within a few minutes. The regular process takes way longer. It requires cooling the heat sink and replacement of damaged pieces, very precise work. It takes two hours. That's why recyclers are for emergency use only, with no other option and with limited supplies. It's faster to just have the mini-fabricators make more."

Tali then looked back at the Engineer with a curious glint.

"And somehow he's able to do it all in a few minutes," she continued with a befuddled tone in her voice. "It's insane, maddening even."

"So what's the secret?" Kat asked, her own curiosity readily engaged.

"Obviously it's able to fabricate some mechanical elements by itself," Tali surmised. "How, I have no idea, the medical scanners can't seem to pick up anything no matter what settings I put it on. It can, however, pick up something else. Liara told us how they're like supercomputers, right?"

"I recall that was in your friend's report, yes," Kat replied succinctly.

Tali pointed to the scanner's read out screen and motioned Kat to wait by it. Meanwhile, the quarian placed a bunch of assorted pieces of metal nearby. It took a few moments for Kat to realize it was a stripped and disassembled pistol of some kind.

"Don't worry, it's not loaded," she assured.

The Engineer got to work almost instantly, rushing to put the pistol back together with all due speed and efficency. Tali made sure that Kat kept her eyes off that display and on the console's computer screen. On the monitor, the sensors were shown to be picking up highly increased brainwave activity. According to this, the Engineer was processing the task before it at an alarmingly fast rate. It was a blink and you missed situation though, because within a few seconds the sensors read normal again. Turning back to the gaseous xeno, she found the creature was already holding up the gun, an M-6 Carnifex if she wasn't mistaken.

"I think he beat my reassembly record," Kat noted.

"He's beaten everyone's reassembly record with the Carnifex," Tali exclaimed. "Even Miranda's and Garrus', and they're both obsessive about that stuff. I've been giving him broken olfactory filters, damaged servos, various bits and ends it had never seen before and it's able to get them back to working order faster than I ever could with my toolkit. I'd be jealous if I wasn't so fascinated. That's not the crazy part though. Watch, he's never been given something this complex before."

Tali dropped down an assault rifle in a similar state of disassembly. This one an Avenger if she recalled, but there were bits and pieces of a MA5C in there as well. Probably in an attempt to confuse the alien a little. When Tali stepped away it got to work again. Kat quickly turned back to the screen and saw the same increased brain activity as before, except even greater and more concentrated. It ended even sooner than before and looked to see the Engineer placing the completed Avenger back on the table, the other bits of the MA5C pushed off to the side, easily recognized as useless for the moment.

"More complicated than the Carnifex and still able to finish the work in record time, even when I tried to confuse it," Tali expressed, almost on the verge of elation "It's not just faster at processing, it's ability to recall memories is staggering. It's comparable to an AI. It's not just smart, it's impossibly smart. Capable of learning at an IQ level that would make Mordin blush!"

"You're right, that does seem impossible," Kat concurred, the wheel in her mind slowly turning. "Well, for an organic being anyway."

"I knew you'd be able to understand," Tali said joyfully. "This thing can't be fully organic. It's like a hybrid or something. Artificial and living tissue."

"Like your husks?" Kat asked, a bit concerned.

Tali quickly shook her head.

"No, those things are mindless, no thoughts or emotions of their own," Tali corrected her. "These things are clearly sapient. They might be a little more driven than most, but they think for themselves. They feel things. I caught this one dancing a bit to some of the music BBR was playing earlier."

Curious, Kat turned the volume on the radio up. Whatever rock song was currently playing didn't matter, she just wanted to see if Tali was pulling her leg or not. Sure enough, the Engineer heard the music, moved over to it and started swaying about slightly, even bobbing it's head in rhythm to the sound and cooing with the notes.

"Adorably fascinating," Kat stated in the most deadpan tone she could deliver. "So it thinks like a machine, feels like an organic creature. Perhaps some neurological or cybernetic implant? One of extremely advanced design?"

"Can't detect any cybernetics on the scanners," Tali shrugged as the engineer moved it's head over to her. "Their genetics are a bit odd, but the readings are inconclusive overall. Mordin might have more luck, but I'm not sure if even he can classify their biology."

Tali petted the snake-like head of the creature who apparently in a far more cheerful mood with the music turned up again. It even turned to Kat, nuzzling her arm, perhaps in thanks for turning up the volume. She let the weird alien do it's thing, however bizarre it felt.

"They're the most naturally gifted technical minds in this or any universe," Tali continued to exclaim. "And for the life of me, I can't figure out how anything like this could have evolved naturally."

"Probably because they didn't."

Kat and Tali looked to the door to see who had interrupted them. It was Taq, the female Jackal that had put them on the trail of this Forerunner wreck they were now after. Her hood was down around her neck, revealing piercing determined eyes and flowing quills. The loud music must've masked her entrance, they didn't hear the door slide open. To say Kat had not been expecting her was an understatement.

"What are you doing here?" She asked the bird-like alien.

"I have authorization, relax," Taq assured. "My business practices are a lot less invasive than Zek's, I assure you. Just because I rob tombs doesn't mean I can't work through proper channels."

"That still doesn't really answer her question," Tali informed her. "What are you doing here?"

"Simple, I need your Huragok for a moment," she explained. "Don't worry, I'm not going to take him off your hands, I just need him to look at my data module for a bit."

Kat raised an inquisitive brow and almost sensing the question before she asked it, Taq answered her thoughts.

"I need to see if it can repair some of the fragmented data," the female Jackal explained. "When we get to the wreck I need a reliable map of the place. An idea of where to look for the artifact in question when we're inside would be beneficial, wouldn't you say? Hell just knowing where we're going would be helpful. Don't want to get lost in there."

Kat could see the logic of that, so she decided not to stand in the little alien's way. She motioned her head to the Engineer and the Jackal headed towards it. She reached into her satchel and held up the data module pyramid to the gaseous creature. Eyeing it carefully, the creature picked it up in its tendrils and carried it over to a nearby table. As it started to work, Tali spoke up suddenly.

"What did you mean by that?" She asked. "About them not evolving naturally."

"You can see it yourself, there's no way they just evolved to be inherently gifted with tech," Taq declared. "That's not an evolutionary trait that just passes on. There's also just simple logic. Their species has no fossil record. No cultural history. There's no cities, no evidence they've built anything for themselves, they don't even have an architectural background. You don't evolve to be super scary smart like that and not create some badass city or two. All they do is fix other people's shit. Like it's their function."

"So where do you think they came from?" Kat asked, watching the Engineer continue to work.

There was a bright blue glow now from the bioluminescent body of the Engineer. It's head was sunk low, glaring at the module while it's tendrils seeped into every side. The map could be seen displayed against the ceiling, bits of code and ancient symbols flashing all around. As this happened, Taw answered Kat's question.

"They were clearly made, an artificial race if you will," she postulated. "It's the only explanation for their lack of any cultural footprint. It makes sense, given how the Covenant's Prophets claim to have just found them."

"Found them?" Tali asked in confusion. "What do you mean found them?"

"They just found them, that's the official party line," Taq informed her. "They claim they're tools left by the Forerunners, there to offer their services along the path of supposed salvation. It's why they use them mainly for uncovering and researching Forerunner tech. My theory is the Forerunners created them for a purpose, makes sense given how good they are with machines. However, I doubt that purpose is to help the Covenant. More likely it was so the Forerunner's legacy could live on after their deaths. To what end, I can't say, but it wasn't for the Covenant's benefit."

"What makes you think that?" Kat questioned.

"Because Huragok don't fight for the Covenant and, as you can plainly see, they have no loyalty to them," she exclaimed firmly as she pointed her open palm to the Engineer. "They just help anyone, especially when it means maintaining Forerunner tech. Given their enthusiasm to assist you, I'd go so far as to say they don't even like the Covenant much."

Since they seemed to be used as slaves by the Covenant, Kat could believe that. What she heard about Liara's experience with the aliens suggested as much as well. These things were neutral towards the conflict, but perhaps with little sympathy for their captors. They just found joy in fixing things, learning about new technology, being helpful. Very altruistic, for a bunch of floating gas bags.

"How are you so knowledgeable about all this?" Kat asked the Jackal next.

"I'm an archaeologist," she replied flatly. "An actual worthwhile one who bothers to ask real questions rather than assume the answers are laid out for me by some dipshit with a funny crown. I actually pay attention because I take my job seriously and I leave religion out of my analysis. Mainly because the Forerunners weren't Gods and it is pointless to treat them like they were."

Taq turned back around to look both Tali and Kat in the eyes directly.

"Thank you for confirming that fact by the way," she told them. "Zek told me the whole story, but I don't trust him to be very accurate with the details. I requested the mission logs from your Lieutenant Haverson and he was most gracious to share, if only to satisfy my curiosity. It's as I suspected, the Forerunners didn't ascend, they died. Although, I didn't think their deaths were as extreme as reality apparently revealed. Satisfying to be right, nonetheless."

"Well I'm glad you can be satisfied in the face of potential galactic extinction," Kat noted rather sardonically.

Taq just smirked although it didn't last. Hers and everyone else's attention was brought back to the Engineer as it's bioluminescence faded. It had turned back around, holding the module in hand. Taq took it and activated in her hand. Flipping through the data, she found a readout for the missing ship. It was a proper blueprint, a three-dimensional layout of what the ship looked like complete. Didn't seem to be any clear data on the relic's location though. Taq looked at the Engineer after scanning the information.

"Best you could do, huh?" She asked.

The gaseous creature bobbed it's head and seemed to coo sadly.

"That's alright, it was a longshot anyway," Taq admitted. "Data corrupts, it's inevitable. This thing is eons old by now, some of it just isn't recoverable."

"At least we won't be too lost," Tali said optimistically.

"Assuming it's all in one piece," Taq quickly added. "And you just know it won't be. But we can approximate where we are, so we can work with that. We'll need to locate the relic another way when we arrive. That means hacking the ship's records directly. Not easy."

"It shouldn't be difficult for Cortana," Kat assured. "She's infiltrated harder systems."

"We'll make due either way," Taq relented with a sigh. "Thanks for letting me borrow him, and thank you too, Gasbag."

She patted the Engineer on the head and twirled slightly.

"I'm going to study this more, maybe there's something I missed," she said plainly. "You think your crew will mind if I stay here for a bit?"

"I thought Zek gave you a room aboard the _Serpent_ ," Tali noted. "Why not go there?"

"Because I'd rather be as far away from that idiot as possible for a while," Taq declared. "I just know he's waiting in there, probably only wearing flowers over his junk or some other garbage. I'd rather not deal with that."

"Chances are he's more likely just watching vids," Kat told her. "You probably don't have to worry about him being in there."

"Better safe than sorry," the Jackal explained. "He's going to try something to get me to sleep with him again, I just know it. At least he hasn't sent me bullshit poetry over the mail system yet. Good luck with whatever it is you plan to have these Huragok do for you. Trust me though, they will exceed expectations. They always do."

Taq left, but didn't go far from the med bay. She took a seat just outside the window a few feet away. Kat eyed her curiously for a moment before turning to Tali.

"For a Jackal she's not like her compatriots personality wise," she observed aloud. "She's almost respectable."

"In my experience, other species can surprise you if you let them," Tali informed her.

Indeed, thought Kat. One thing seemed certain, this wreck they were headed to was going to be an interesting operation. She was almost looking forward to it. Then she thought, holy shit, she was looking forward to working with a Jackal of all things. Hopefully she would regret that later.

* * *

It hadn't been hard to find a decent spot on this massive ship to outfit into a proper shooting range. The hangar provided more than enough space. They were unable to use most their traditional weapons due to rationing of course. Even with all the bullets the pirates had kindly procured for them, they still needed to carefully monitor their use of live rounds. This meant they were stuck mostly with spare guns lent to them by the _Normandy_ as thermal clips could be more readily replaced via that ship's micro-replicator technology. At least now they could keep their skills sharp, just not with their regular weapons.

That could change though if what Buck had brought to show McKay worked

It looked like a regular M6D pistol, but the magazine was slightly larger and the shaft had been modified in a similar manner. It didn't take long to figure out why, for when McKay popped the magazine out she found a thermal clip inside. Snapping it back in place she smiled lightly at Buck.

"So Garrus finally figured it out, huh?" She asked him.

"Him and Jacob, actually," Buck corrected. "The biggest problem was just finding the time to perfect everything. Jacob is no slouch with guns either, so he picked up the slack. It's got one of those lead blocks installed in the chamber, just like their guns. The idea is further increased stopping power with added modification ability. Only gains, no losses to accuracy or damage output."

McKay looked over the modified gun. It felt slightly heavier but otherwise wasn't too different from the regular M6D. She aimed it down range through the iron sight, nodding as she did.

"Can they do the same with our other guns?" She asked.

"They think so," Buck told her. "But they'd like to know how this prototype works first. They want to see if there's still adjustments to be made. Well, Garrus does at least. It's a thing for him."

"Right, I've heard about his preoccupation with, uh, calibrations," McKay recalled. "Well, if it means I get more guns like this I'm eager to try it out."

Before she even started shooting down range though, the intercom started playing music. Even with the volume on it turned down, she could still clearly hear the song "Hot Blooded" filling the whole damn room. She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. She hadn't been able to escape this stuff since the morning started.

"Shepard lets his guard down for one second with his computer and before we know it Zek's cronies are blasting this retro rock everywhere," she groaned. "Honestly, I'm not surprised they like it, I'm just surprised they throwing it back at us so blatantly."

"Maybe it's their way of showing us they actually like us," Buck chuckled warmly. "Or at least that they like our music."

"Comforting," McKay assured the Sergeant. "I don't think the Co-opting of 20th Century Hard Rock and Metal is having the desired effect though. That's my impression at least."

McKay aimed down range finally and positioned the sights on target's "head." The spare bulkhead panels they had cut into silhouettes were obviously more durable than paper, so would need to be constantly replaced. She fired three clean rounds into the target's head, one after the other. The kickback wasn't too bad, similar to a regular M6D. It did feel more powerful though, the result of a mass effect field discharge she imagined. Grouping seemed decent at least too.

"Well it didn't blow up in my face," McKay said, chuckling sardonically. "So far so good. Wish everything was like that."

She fired another shot at a second further target before Buck interrupted her concentration.

"Rome works out his frustrations on the range too," he bluntly stated.

"That obvious?" She asked stoically, not at all embarrassed that it showed so easily.

"You have been pretty tense, ma'am," Buck told her. "I don't blame you, but there is a reason I asked you to help me with this and not someone else. You needed to get away from the job for a second."

"Sadly everything these days is the job, Sergeant," McKay told him flatly. "But I appreciate the sentiment. Honestly, I think that's why I agreed to come down when you asked."

She took a few more shots down the line, easily hitting the further target three more times. She shifted to a third target that was much closer to them, blasting it six times in the head before she stopped to eject the thermal clip.

"Twelve rounds, impressive," she told Buck. "I was honestly worried we had lost one or two in the transition."

"Garrus thinks he can get an extra with some modifications," Buck informed her in kind. "But back to the subject, how are you holding up?"

"Best as I can, Buck," McKay admitted as she slapped the next thermal clip in. "The fact is though at times it feels like I'm all alone out there in front of the men. They act like I don't see it but I do. Hell, I can feel it, I'm not one of them anymore to them."

She unloaded another four rounds into another target, two in the head, two in the middle of it's torso. The terrible blasting of the gun almost drowned out the obnoxious rock music in the background as it echoed in the chamber. McKay let the weapon's barrel smoke for a bit as she took a breath.

"You're not alone, ma'am," Buck assured her. "You have your supporters. Me, my squad, that rookie Gilfoyle, this other kid, Locklear I think his name is. There are plenty of Drop Troopers who think what you did back on the _Truth and Reconciliation_ took a lot of guts."

"And I'm glad to have that support, but a little less than half an already damaged unit still leaves a lot of soldiers who think otherwise," she said morosely. "It's like all that training in boot just went out the window. I'm a pariah now, Sergeant. Let's not mix words here."

"Doesn't mean it's your fault," Buck told her firmly. "You did what you had to do. According to you, Silva himself realized he was wrong in the end. If he had gotten that infected ship out of atmo, who knows what might have happened."

"I know, Sergeant," McKay assured him, turning her head to look at him. "But doing the right thing doesn't always translate to what's popular. Sometimes I wish I'd have pushed more, found a way to talk Antonio down, change his mind. But then I can't think of anything I could've said that would've changed a damn thing."

She took another few shots, this time aiming at a target set up a few feet higher than the others and further back. She managed to score another clean headshot with relative ease.

"Don't misunderstand, Buck," she continued calmly. "If I had to do it all over again, I'd still have sided with the Spartans to stop him. Part of me just feels I could've done more before that point to prevent what happened altogether."

"Sometimes you can't control what people do, LT," Buck responded sadly. "You can only control your actions. Sometimes people above or below us do stupid, bullshit things. And those stupid, bullshit things end up taking the whole mission south. Right now, all those guys against you are looking for someone to blame. They're being petty, that's all."

"Point is I need to win to get them back under control," McKay explained. "And I need to do it before they try to do something even worse than what Silva attempted. We don't need a repeat mutiny, Buck. I'm just not sure how to prevent it. I'm not sure what I have to do to earn their respect again."

"Well, maybe you could ask Haverson or Holland for a field promotion," Buck casually suggested. "Captain Melissa McKay has a nice ring to it."

McKay thought on that for a moment, bringing her gun down from her target. "Hot Blooded" had long since ended, replaced by "Dream On", almost as if by pure happenstance. The universe just laughing at her it seemed.

Captain, she'd be lying to herself to say she never thought of it. A promotion like that, it would be a big step. It also made sense, Lieutenants didn't usually serve as Unit Commanders. Holland and Haverson weren't Navy branches, true, but in theory they could promote her to that rank if so inclined. They were the acting COs of this makeshift fleet, at least in relation to all UNSC personnel. She hadn't asked them though and the reason was fairly simple.

"You really think that would change much?" She asked Buck sincerely.

"Maybe it won't, but it's something," he answered. "It might remind everyone that you're in charge, whether they like it or not."

"If I get the promotion I want it to be for a legitimate reason," she explained bluntly. "I want to feel like I earned it. Not because I demand it or because I think it will get me respect. I just doesn't feel right otherwise."

Buck just nodded in reply.

"It's your career, ma'am," he relented. "Far be it from me to tell you how to run it. Just for the record though, if that's really how you feel, I suggest you keep your eyes open for that opportunity to earn it. Might be coming sooner than you think. Whenever that happens, you can count on my squad to back you up. That's a promise ma'am."

"Thanks, Sergeant," McKay said smiling lightly. "That means a lot, believe me."

She fired the rest of the rounds at each of the targets in quick succession. She hit a headshot with every single one before the thermal clip was expended. She cleared the gun and placed it down on the table.

"You can tell Garrus the gun is a success," she announced. "The weight requires some adjustment and rate of fire could be improved, but that's an easy fix. I think we got ourselves a decent gun."

"He'll be delighted to hear that, ma'am," Buck told her. "Any other suggestions for his next gun modification?"

She gave it a moment's thought before deciding.

"I'd like see what he can do with a Battle Rifle," she suggested. "That might be a nice stress reliever, come to think about it."

* * *

The last Shepard had expected was to be called down to the Spartan Quarters by Chief himself. Usually he was the one reaching out to the super soldier. While he had been more social in comparison to when they first met, he was still pretty closed off most of the time. Shepard couldn't imagine what had prompted the request for a meeting.

He arrived to find Chief alone sitting down near a small makeshift table created from Covenant ammo crates. Shepard looked around, but found no one else in the room with them. He guessed the other Spartans were out doing something else.

"Hey, Chief," Shepard greeted. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yes, Sir," he replied. "I hope you weren't busy with anything."

"I got time for all my friends, Chief," Shepard assured him. "Don't worry about it."

The Commander took a seat across from the Spartan. He was eager to learn why he was here. He could only expect it was something important and most likely personal. Why else would they be here in private. At least, he imagined they were speaking in private.

"Is Cortana..."

"Haverson asked her to analyze the Carrier's computer," he explained. "He wants to see if there is any usable intelligence on it. Right now it's just you and me, there's something I have to ask you about."

Shepard just nodded, signaling him to go ahead. Chief exhaled briefly and then laid it all out.

"I think my old team is still alive."

It was blunt and to the point, classic Master Chief. Shepard assumed he meant his old team of fellow Spartans, the ones presumably lost on Reach. Shepard could only try to keep his stoic composure and not sound too skeptical.

"Why do you think this?" He asked. "Did something come up? Did Cortana intercept a transmission? Did she find something?"

"No," Chief admitted. "I don't have any proof they're alive. Just a feeling. I'll understand if you feel that sounds irrational. I can barely understand it myself, but it's how I feel."

"I'm assuming you've already talked to Cortana about the likelihood of their survival," Shepard noted.

Chief just nodded.

"I know it's astronomical," he admitted. "But I can't shake it. I just feel like they're still there. They're still on Reach and they're alive."

Shepard didn't want to come off as insulting or confrontational, so he decided to forgo arguing the point for the moment. Instead, he decided to switch gears a little.

"How long have you suspected this?" He asked.

"A good while now," Chief admitted. "Ever since we got off Halo."

Shepard nodded, his throat eliciting an understanding "hmm" in response.

"By all accounts it looked like everyone was dead," the Spartan continued. "Linda, Holland, Sergeant Johnson, all those Marines and Army Troopers, your crew. It looked like we had just blown them all up to save the galaxy from the Flood. Instead, we find they're alive. I'm so used to that not being the case, well, maybe it struck a chord."

"Like there's hope?" Shepard asked. "Hope there could be other survivors?"

"Maybe," Chief shrugged. "Or maybe I'm just being stupid, I don't know. Can't shake the feeling though."

There was a brief silence where Shepard just tried to read his friend. The Master Chief spoke more through body language than anyone other person he knew. It was all very subtle though, his emotions tapped down hard. It was doubtless part of his training since childhood. To be a good leader, you couldn't let your emotions control you on the job. You needed to make decisions, you needed to think dispassionately and directly. You couldn't let your heart clog your head. Shepard always believed there were times you could go the other way. That being a soldier didn't mean you had to only think in terms of strategy and tactics. You had to be flexible, otherwise you were just some robot giving out orders without regard to those who followed you.

As much as they probably had tried to instil that in the Master Chief, it hadn't completely took. He maintained the outward appearance of a pillar of strength for his team to latch onto. Inside though, he cared, probably more than he really should. He grew up with the other Spartans, they were his family. No matter how hard you try to beat that out of a kid, it's never going to go away completely. Humans want companionship, it's in their DNA. Chief sought it in his team, they became his brothers, his sisters, whatever he needed them to be. They did the same to him, it was clear from what he had seen between him and Linda.

He hadn't let any of them go, not even after they died, he couldn't. Shepard understood that feeling, although he suspected Chief had handled it a hell of a lot better. He imagined the Spartan had not descended into alcoholism to try and forget. No, he had kept trying to remember, to push him on further. It must've torn him up inside, yet it also drove him.

"You know about UNSC policy concerning the Spartans, right?" Chief suddenly asked. "How we're listed when we get killed?"

"All missing in action from what I've heard," Shepard recalled. "Creates the idea that they're still out there, still fighting."

"I have the whole list in here," he stated, pointing to his head. "Every single one reported killed I mark as MIA per protocol. I check it every now and then. It's become a pretty big list. Me and Linda are the only ones listed as active anymore."

"That's a pretty heavy burden to hold in there," Shepard noted.

"It's mine alone to bear," Chief answered stoically. "They're my people, it's my job."

Shepard just nodded in understanding, not wanting to pry further.

"I suppose, just once, I'd like to change the MIA back to active," Chief admitted plainly, looking away as he spoke. "I like to believe I can do that one day. I gave up on that after Reach. Then, we found out how many people survived Halo's destruction and, well..."

"I get it, Chief, I do," Shepard assured him. "But I've been down this road myself. It doesn't always turn out how you hope."

"I know, but part of me just needs to head down it," Chief explained. "I need to confirm it, see it for myself. I need to know if they're really gone. Just this once, I need to know for sure."

Shepard stood back up, his arms crossed in a thoughtful manner.

"It's not going to be easy to convince Holland to head back to Reach," he said thoughtfully.

"I know, I'm not asking you to help me find an excuse," Chief explained. "Cortana is already trying to help me think of something. I just wanted you here to ask you something else."

Shepard turned and looked attentively at the Spartan.

"When I make my case, I want to know if you'll have my back," he requested. "I just need to know that. I don't mean to put pressure on you, sir, but I'd appreciate if I knew where you stood."

Shepard just smiled lightly. He walked over and slapped his hand on Chief's shoulder.

"I always got your back, Chief," he assured him. "When you make your case, just let me know. I'll be there to back you up. I'm not sure how much I can do, but I'll be there, I promise."

"Thank you, sir," Chief said nodding lightly. "That means a lot."

"I just want you to be ready for if we do go back," Shepard was quick to add. "Like I said, it might not turn out the way you want."

Chief seemed to accept that possibility, he knew the odds against his instincts, that was clear. Before the conversation could go further though, their internal comms chirped alive.

" _Commander, Master Chief, this is Haverson,"_ the voice on the line said. _"Holland needs a moment of your time. First Mate Retz has called a private meeting. It sounds important. We might need your input."_

"On our way, Haverson," Shepard replied. "Be there in a minute."

He cut the comm and turned to Chief.

"Think it's another potential mission?" The Spartan asked.

"More than likely," Shepard concurred. "I had a talk with Zek earlier today, it might be another attempt to prove their value to Holland."

"This should at least be interesting," Chief said as he stood up. "No sense in keeping them waiting then. Let's go."

Shepard just flashed an assuring smile as they left.

"Right behind you, Chief."

* * *

Holland looked over the three dimensional image hanging in the air before his face. His inquisitive eye examined the pictures of the asteroid belt, the structures built into the rock the size of the island of Manhattan. He could also see a cluster of small structures on another smaller rock nearby, along with a number of ships flying about the area. He was intrigued, but skeptical nonetheless. He looked past the image to Retz. The Jackal wasn't smiling, but he did seem eager to hear something, anything from the Colonel.

"This is legitimate?" Holland asked at last.

"Solid as can be, Colonel," Retz stoically assured. "I have good contacts, good ears. Look at your hold full of rocket launchers for proof of that."

Holland crossed his arms as he stood upright.

"I just want to know what we're walking into if we agree to act," he explained. "Help me sort through the murk here, this place is what exactly? A Covenant resource mining operation?"

"Technically, they're a subsidiary branch of the Iruiru Armory," Retz clarified. "Located on the Sangheili homeworld, but a major supplier of many Covenant firearms. The demands of a galactic wide-war have forced them to look for raw materials further and further away from their home system. This is one of their mining and processing facilities."

"And what does this facility specialize in making?" Holland questioned, expecting a worthwhile response.

"Plasma coils from what I understand," Retz informed him. "The bedrock of every gun they put into service. These asteroids are full of the materials needed to make them. That's why they set this place up. It's a small cog in a relatively large war machine, of course. But every dent made inevitably breaks the engine down, correct?"

Holland turned to Haverson, expecting him to field his own question. He did not disappoint.

"I suspect you want something out of this if we decide to act on your intel," he surmised. "What is it?"

"To be honest, we don't really mind either way," Retz explained. "We're sitting rather pretty thanks to our trip to the Hollow. We can hold off on another job for a while if we wished. However, this is a Covenant-backed facility. It's protected by a small unit of sangheili, plus company security forces. It's manufacturing weapons or weapons parts for the war against you. It's also not too far off our present course. It's a target of opportunity, it's your choice to ignore it."

"But what do you want for it?" Holland said aloud impatiently, asking once again on Haverson's behalf.

"Some of the raw materials to sell to a few suppliers in exchange for credits really," Retz admitted almost casually. "Plasma coil materials and parts are a hot little commodity. Fast, easy money if you get the right buyer. Would be nice to have something a little extra to spend now and then."

Holland hadn't expected the Jackal to be so forward with the truth. He out and admitted they were after profit here. Perhaps he didn't want insult his intelligence with another cock and bull story as before. Or maybe it was a half-truth and Retz wasn't telling him again there was also no pressure to act on the information. You'd think he'd be more insistent if this was truly important to him.

"If do go, can I assume you would assist us in taking the facility?" Holland asked him.

"That's up to you," Retz replied simply. "But to be honest, it wouldn't exactly be a fair trade if you made us stay away from this one. Also, just for future reference, it's not exactly a good return on our investment either if we don't have more say in operations like this. We provide you the intelligence and you keep us from getting involved? I mean, there's not much in it for us that way."

"We could always just give you some of the spoils as compensation," Haverson suggested. "You don't have to lift a finger either. Sounds like a win all around."

But Retz shook his head at the offer.

"That's not a great deal for us," he claimed rather succinctly. "We'd be putting our trust in you to give us our fair share. We'd be placing full profit on this endeavor into your hands. With that in mind, I would not feel as obliged to offer anything else I might discover through my contacts to you. Also, I'd imagine your men would have their own problems with us not doing our fair share on such missions. Worse yet, you forcing us to stay on the sidelines could possibly suggest to a few people you're giving us special treatment. Letting us be layabouts, if you will. Honestly, we're a part of this makeshift fleet too. We might as well do our part."

As much as Holland hated to admit to himself, the Jackal had a point. Keeping the Pirates away from the facility would not sit over well with some of the men. The ODSTs were still on edge according to the reports McKay was sending him. If he allowed the Jackals a holiday while he sent humans into battle, well, it just wouldn't look good.

Besides, Retz had all the intel, he knew more about this facility than them. Just looking at the three dimensional image, he could tell they were going to need multiple teams working together to take it down. If they chose to go down this road, they'd need Zek's pirates to help pull it off. Like it or not, it was as Shepard had told them other day, they needed each other right now. Any operation they pulled would require some level of cooperation. There was just no way around that.

The only real question now was if they'd decide to hit this place. Holland looked to the right of the table, where the Master Chief was standing with Commander Shepard. They had both been rather quiet during Retz's pitch. It was time to get their opinion.

"Thoughts, Commander?" Holland asked. "I trust you and your team have dealt with missions like this before."

"A few times, yes," Shepard responded. "I'd be more than willing to send some of my people in. Just like with the carrier I can position them with the other assault groups for additional support. If Retz's intel is accurate, well, it shouldn't be too difficult to pull off."

Holland nodded and turned to the Master Chief, a different question in mind.

"What do you think of the objective, Chief?" He asked simply. "Is it worth the risk?"

"Plasma coils are pretty much the main component in every frontline Covenant weapon," the Spartan said thoughtfully. "As I understand it, we know very little about the materials the Covenant use to make theirs. We've captured plenty of their guns, but this is a chance to better understand their process for making them. That information could be a potential windfall. Ignoring that though, despite this place probably not being a main manufacturing facility, it's still a part of the Covenant war effort. We break it, they can't use it. That's a few less plasma rifles rolling out of assembly to kill Marines with. I say, we take it down."

Holland smiled a bit. Despite what people claimed about the Spartan IIs being blunt instruments, the Master Chief was probably one the sharpest soldiers he had ever known. He had a good strategic grasp of the situation and Holland couldn't fault his logic. He did still feel wary about trusting the Jackals yet again, but at least this time they seemed more up front about their goals. Was Retz telling him everything? Probably not, but what Holland did know for sure was that this place was making guns that killed UNSC soldiers. It was nearby and they had the means to shut it down.

"Alright, we take it," he declared. "Smash, grab, burn it down and run. Simple as that."

"Excellent decision, Colonel," Retz said grinning. "And an even better strategy, I might add. We might make a Pirate of you yet."

Retz deactivated the hologram and pulled out the data module from the table. He then slid it over to Holland. Haverson quickly swiped it off the table as it neared the Colonel and it held it up to his eye.

"I'll let Zek know we're taking the facility together," Retz explained as he began to leave. "Sorry he can't be here himself, he's grown extremely fond of this Ultraman character. You best study the plans and consider who will be on mission. We'll await your operations briefing and compare notes."

Retz then left the room and Holland sighed.

"I'm guessing you have some reservations, sir," Haverson noted aloud.

"Plenty," he admitted to the Lieutenant. "I find it hard to fully trust anything they say after the past few days. But that doesn't change facts, this is a legitimate military target and we are in a position to deal with it. We can't just ignore that, so we're going."

"Agreed, sir," Haverson concurred. "And I trust Commander Shepard's team will be more than adequate to keep the Pirates and their Batarian friends in line. Just in case there's something shadier going on here."

"I think they were being more honest than usual, but don't worry, I'm not naive," Shepard assured him. "My people will keep an eye on them, make sure they don't do anything shifty. In fact, I know just who to pick for the job."

* * *

AN: We're starting a new arc today, hope you enjoy what is to come. There's going to be a few interesting things coming up sooner than you think. We've also introduced a new character, Boz the Buzzard. Keep an eye out for him, he will be making regular appearances. Let me know your honest opinions about him, you'll be seeing a lot of him in due time. You'll see what I mean.

This was originally a larger chapter, but it got extremely big. So I split it up. The next chapter will come in a few days, but expect some other things to pop as well, including the next chapter of the spinoff story. That one is gonna be interesting indeed. Next chapter here though, we go full Pirate! Who is Shepard sticking with them for the mission? Come back then and see for yourself. Until then, please leave a review and do visit the TV Tropes page when you can.


	8. Brigands of a Feather, Steal Together

**Chapter Seven: Brigands of a Feather, Steal Together**

 _People will Steal Anything. Sometimes they don't even know what they're Stealing_

 _-Dan Istvan_

As she stood in the _Fallen Serpent's_ hangar bay, Miranda decided that as of that moment she hated Shepard, probably more now than usual. Of all the missions to give her, why Zek? Why stick her with him? What did he say again? "They know you'll be watching them like a hawk," was what he claimed. As if that would be enough to deter them from doing anything stupid. Maybe, but that still meant she had to tolerate the Pirate and his insubordinate, disorderly crew or reprobates. Oh she'd make sure they wouldn't get away with anything, she'd do her job. When she got back though, she was going to give Shepard a piece of her mind for stick with this group of idiots.

Already they were proving her low expectations accurate, boozing up with their damn ichor as they were getting ready to go. They were like a bunch of drunken frat boys, acting like they were going out for a sporting event and not an actual mission. Granted, none of them were getting completely inebriated, but they were buzzed. They were the type of drunk that made you think you could jump from the barstool to the opposite table. Probably good for say, an ancient Viking warrior perhaps, but not an actual seasoned operative like herself.

Worse of all of course, was Zek, who was trying to pump his little band of knaves with watching some stupid looking old TV show. By the looks of the strange rubber monster with the frill and weird silver and red giant, it was Japanese in origin. The various pirates gathered around the holoscreen, cheering at the fight and pumping their fists. When the giant tore the frill off the monster, Zek shouted aloud with glee as his men cheered.

"Yeah! Fuck him up! Punch his skull in, Ultra!"

It was ridiculous, the most insane pre-battle ritual she had ever seen. It took every ounce of willpower she had to not just bolt out the door and leave Mordin or Tali in charge of this nonsense. What kept her rooted was the simple fact she had too much pride. She wasn't about to let these stupid pirates get he best of her. She was staying and dammit she would make this work somehow. Hopefully that would mean muzzling Zek, that would be rather enjoyable.

"You keep glaring like that it's gonna stick that way," Kasumi spoke up as she slinked in beside her.

"I think it's a bit late for that, Kas," Tali joked. "This is her default setting at this point."

"You two are adorable," Miranda grumbled sarcastically. "Perhaps you should form a comedy duo in the future."

"Tempting, but sounds like way too much work," Kasumi argued. "Unless I could rob the art museums of the cities where we perform, too much pressure otherwise. That would raise way too much suspicion anyway."

Miranda sighed, this was typical of Kasumi. She liked to joke, she liked to tease, it was her way of coping with stress before missions. At least she was on though when chips were down, but she still didn't missions as seriously as she did. It was probably why she seemed to get along with the Jackals so much, they had a lot in common besides the profession of thievery. Miranda's eyes looked to the holoscreen again, more images of rubber monsters being pounded into the dirt by a giant humanoid.

"Your handiwork, I assume?" She asked Kasumi in a deadpan tone.

"Joker isn't the only one who likes to watch vids in his downtime," the hooded thief replied with a smirk. "I have the advantage with my greybox of course. You haven't experienced Japanese Monster Cinema until you're smack dab in the middle of the action. Still looks pretty good on a holoscreen though."

The Jackals suddenly cheered at the scene of giant humanoid vaporizing a monster with some sort of beam.

"Ah, they have the best battles compilation I made a while back on," Kasumi noted. "All of Ultraman's Greatest Fights in one convenient package."

"They've certainly taking a liking to it quickly," Tali observed.

"Reaction of Zek's crew not surprising," Mordin argued, coasting in beside the three women. "Not entirely. Jackal species, AKA Kig-yar, naturally attracted to violence. Inevitable given culture. Society based on competition. All forms of competition. Economic and monetary gains not exclusive preferences. Sporting events purest expression of a species' competitive nature. Conflict presented on screen, while fictional, similar to wrestling matches as well as other martial arts competitions. One key difference though. Fight usually to death in fictional setting of giant monsters."

"That does not exactly make me comfortable, Mordin," Miranda told him plainly.

"Not so bad," the salarian claimed. "Pirates enjoy spectacle of battle. Clear release of adrenaline when part of it. Makes subjects reckless? Perhaps. Still useful in certain circumstances. Bloodthirst serves krogan well enough in combat. Jackals different of course, less emphasis on honor and tradition. More willing to fight dirty. Sneaky. Somewhat like STG. Less surgical of course. Not nearly as professional."

Mordin coming along on this mission had been a bit of a surprise. Not that he wanted to help, but that he had volunteered to go with Zek's pirates. When asked why, the answer became a bit obvious, study. Already it seemed he had gotten quite a bit of information concerning Jackal culture just from standing around and watching them for a few minutes. He obviously saw much more in than her. All Miranda could see was unbridled senseless chaos and she hated it.

"The lack of professionalism is what concerns me," she explained aloud. "This facility may not be as risky as assaulting a Carrier, but it is still occupied by heavily armed and well-trained individuals. They could show a little bit of restraint and seriousness given the circumstances."

"Miranda, I understand your problems with them," Tali said, sighing as she did. "I agree, they're not ideal squadmates. But if this is how they get ready for a fight, I suggest we not judge them too harshly for being who they are. We all have to work with people we don't like sometimes. Maybe you should just suck it up and deal with it, so to speak."

Miranda glared at Tali as she turned her back. She knew what the quarian meant by that remark, payback. When Shepard had re-activated Legion and allowed it to join the crew, Tali was more than a little incensed and made sure everyone knew about it. She wasn't happy either, and it probably wasn't her place to speak up given her own problems with Jack, but her better nature didn't win out in this case. She essentially told Tali to accept Shepard's decision, suck it up and deal with it. Now, the shoe was on the other foot. Miranda was stuck working with a bunch of stupid, chaotic pirates and the quarian mechanic was enjoying herself watching Lawson's ever growing annoyance at the situation.

Tali and Miranda had never gotten along. Unlike the situation with Jack, where their dislike of one another was overt and displayed for all to see, things were more subtle with Tali. Well, as subtle as they could be. The quarian didn't seek to undermine her or argue with her at every opportunity, but they did clash more often than not given time. Miranda didn't fully understand the reasons for the rivalry and honestly she didn't care. This was expected. When you were genetically created to be a perfect specimen of humanity you tended to piss off a few more people than you made friends.

Lawson suspected she had rubbed the quarian the wrong way when she had been in Cerberus' employ, specifically in regards to her comments on her people. She did keep making excuses for why Cerberus' relations with the Migrant Fleet were as strained as they were. At the very least it never compromised the mission at hand, but she knew they weren't friends. Miranda saw no reason alleviate the grudge herself, not now or in the future. Let Ms. Zorah hate her, she wasn't here to be liked.

Besides, Tali had a point. There was no sense in mopping about being stuck with the space pirates, she had to deal with it. She walked up to Zek, still in the middle of his monster battle marathon with his crew and got his attention by coughing lightly into her hand.

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in going over the mission briefing with us," she requested. "If we're a part of your plan, it wouldn't hurt to know what your strategy for our target is."

"Alright, alright," Zek said, somewhat annoyed at being torn away from watching Ultraman pound another monster's head in. "If you insist, Ms. Lawson."

Zek put his wrist out and activated a button on the side. A holographic display of their target building was soon hovering over their heads.

"Manufacturing and Assembly," he said pointing diligently upwards. "Where they make the plasma weapons and coils. The latter of course comes in different sizes depending on the weapon. Most of the stuff made here is small arms, rifles, pistols, nothing complicated. Bigger coils end up getting shipped back to major factories though, they use those for repeaters or Ghost Rapid Assault Vehicles. Currently, they're getting ready for a new shipment."

Zek clicked another button and the image of a Covenant cargo ship appeared beside the structure.

"Probably already heavily loaded down with stuff," Zek continued. "There's a second ship in waiting, but that's Retz's problem. We need to keep this one from escaping. It's smaller than your average Corvette so taking it should be a breeze. Getting on board before they can get away with the spoils will be a bit of problem, but we can buy ourselves some time. We just need to damage their docking clamps on approach, right here."

Zek pointed to the docking area near the building. As he did, a small flight of holographic Phantoms flew in and bombarded the area with plasma fire.

"Once they're stuck we'll have some time to reach them," he said. "That means storming the structure from the top down. Until we get inside the airlock, we're gonna have to keep our suits tight, so that's the biggest risk. Once we're in though, we just have to shoot our way down to the ship and BOOM we have a whole ship full of plasma coils for the UNSC to play with."

"A simple plan, not very detailed, but it could work," Miranda observed. "However, it all hinges on that cargo ship remaining where it is. What if finds away to escape the dock?"

"I got a back-up plan, don't worry," Zek promised grinning. "It won't get far. Really the whole plan, if not the job itself really hinges on your ODSTs. If they can't shut down the anti-ship guns they got positioned all over the asteroid field we're fucked before we even launch."

"They have a reputation for dealing with difficult assignments," Miranda assured him. "They'll be fine."

"It's not their reputation that worries me," Zek explained skeptically. "It's their attitude towards the person in charge."

Miranda looked at the space pirate with stern apprehensive glare. Zek just shrugged it off, not really phased at all.

"Come on, Ms. Lawson, everyone knows what is going on in their ranks, people talk and I have good ears," Zek declared defensively. "Quite a few of them are still unsure of their new leader, insubordinate if you will."

"Lieutenant McKay is a capable soldier," Miranda informed him. "She will get the job done. You need not worry about the guns. They will be down."

"We'll see, Ms. Lawson," Zek told her rather plainly. "In the meantime, Ultra is about to take on those weird lobster bug people again and I'm not missing it."

Zek returned to his holoscreen while Miranda stewed in her own thoughts. Zek was right about the ODSTs, she had seen the reports herself. Their ranks were still rather divided. McKay had supporters for her command, but others felt differently about her. She had passed her first test as unit commander on the Carrier, but now she had a more crucial role than drawing enemies into a killzone. Hopefully she was indeed up to the task.

Truthfully though, she was a bit more concerned because of the people going in with her on the operation. And Miranda was not thinking of any particular ODST. Just one very angry ex-convict with some very devastating power to back her up.

* * *

This was not going to be your traditional drop, that was for sure. McKay wasn't sure how that sat with everyone, maybe they felt a bit better about not being thrown feet first at the Covies for once. Then again, flying right into them wasn't much better. All McKay knew was that the whole thing made her stomach churn, but she did her best not to show it. This was their only option, they didn't have Drop Pods. Well, they sorta did, but she wasn't about to trust her people's lives to a bunch of Covenant junk. Those things weren't designed humans, they were designed for eight-foot warmongering assholes. So, Pelican it was. Beefed up with some shields that the ever helpful Engineers had saw fit to install, so it wasn't like they were going in naked.

"You sure this thing will hold under fire?" Romeo asked her. "They tend to fall out of the sky a lot from my experience."

"No worse than a pod, Rome," Buck argued. "We get a few extra shots in this case actually."

"You get hit in a pod it's pretty quick," Romeo argued. "This usually involves spinning, metal breaking and a few extra explosions."

She really did not want them talking that way right now, she had enough problems without imaging how many ways this could go wrong. Supposedly both of their Corvettes would provide them cover, firing shots into the asteroid field to mask their approach. Yeah, that calmed her nerves, now she was at risk from getting shot by their supposed friends.

Calm down, McKay thought to herself as she stood behind the co-pilot's chair, this isn't helping anyone. Tying herself up in a ball of nerves was hardly conducive at this point. If she didn't remain stoic in the face of this, they'd pick up on it. That was the last thing she needed now. Maybe that was the real source of her nerves, the fact she had people watching her and expecting her to fail.

She looked back to the squad and saw a few of those faces, so to speak. They were currently all wearing sealed suits, until they actually got inside the target building there would be no atmosphere. However that didn't conceal their disdainful for her, not to McKay. Collis and Travers were among them of course, but they weren't the only ones.

There was Corporal Fadden, an angry sort who didn't like how quick the Marines were to jump ship once they heard the Flood were infesting the place. He honestly felt that it was McKay's fault things got so bad, if rumor was correct. That if she had stuck by Silva, they could've beaten the Flood easily when they attacked. Instead her actions "divided the crew" and made them easy pickings.

Sergeant Lendon was another. He just hated Jackals more or less, had ever since a squad of them had ambushed his unit on a colony years back. Way she heard it, they faked being dead, jumped up like zombies from the grave and started blowing people away. Lendon hated Jackals, probably more than most ODSTs did and more than any other Covie species. He probably would've been less antagonistic to McKay if it had been any other alien extending an olive branch but the Jackals.

Those were just to name a few. She did have friends of course, people who did seem to agree with her. Besides Buck's squad there were people like Corporal Gilfoyle, who had mostly tried to stay out of the whole mutiny business. Reservations against siding with former Covies? Yeah, but they all did to a degree. Point was, Gilfoyle did not feel it was worth fighting against fellow UNSC soldiers to prevent such an alliance. Until the Evac call came, he ran hangar detail and basically kept his gun holstered until the Flood started showing up.

A decent even split, she had supporters. Didn't make it any less a division though and it showed no signs of closing. This mission was going to test whether or not they could still operate under these circumstances. More importantly though, it tell her if she could still lead. Thankfully, she had a bit of a trump card in her deck, something that would make this mission run a lot smoother with any luck. They too were on her side, they just weren't ODSTs.

"Don't worry guys," Jack said as she wrung her wrists and cracked her knuckles. "We'll make the drop. No force in this stupid universe is gonna keep me from a good fight."

"I think they're looking for something a bit more tangible than their universe not wanting to anger you before you die," Thane suggested. "Like how if we stay under their scanners and use the asteroid formations as cover, it should be a relatively easy insertion."

"I prefer thinking the cosmos are afraid of me," Jack informed him while smirking.

Thane and Jack had volunteered for their detail. McKay didn't object. Having an experienced an assassin and hardened brawler would be useful. It didn't hurt that they both had biotic abilities either. Despite Jack being rather undisciplined, all that mattered to McKay right now was that she listened to her. The consensus was she would so long as it meant killing Covenant. At least she could work with that. She banged on the Pelican's ceiling to get the team's attention.

"Alright, most of us aren't used to this kind of insertion, but we're making due with what we got," she informed them all sternly. "Regardless of any reservations you may have about that, we will make our target. We'll speed under their sensors while the plasma fire blankets out approach vector from above. For once the flak is helping us, don't get used to it. We are then hitting the roof of the security structure hard. Guns blazing, no prisoners, shoot to kill, our specialty. We then get inside, shut their turrets down and move to communications to shut them up so the individual sections can't coordinate. Don't worry about much else but seeking and destroying."

"I like the destroying part," Jack called out.

Good, McKay thought, she'd be happy then. More than she could say about Lendon, who was already giving her the stink-eye through his visor. At least he was stowing it for now.

"Sergeant Buck, you are heading up squad one with me," she informed Buck firmly. "We are entering the primary airlock on the roof. Sergeant Lendon is squad two's lead, they will go through the secondary. We will converge on the main security room in a pincer movement, take them from both sides. Watch your crossfire in there, okay?"

"Yeah, wouldn't want to kill any of our fellow ODSTs," Lendon snorted rudely. "Wouldn't we, Lieutenant?"

McKay's eyes narrowed, Rome looked about ready to say something, but she placed up a hand to silence him. She wasn't about to let someone else fight her battle here. She was leading this unit now, these Drop Troopers were hers. Lendon and the others needed to learn that. They would respect the Chain of Command.

"The key to this operation's success relies entirely on our coordination as a unit," she reiterated. "If successful, this could be the first of many such factories taken down. We need this to go by the numbers. So, follow the plan, watch the corners and be professional. Just because this isn't a Drop Pod, doesn't make any of you less of an ODST. I expect you all to act like it."

Lendon kept his trap shut after that. Thane at least had a more productive comment.

"Where do you wish us to be, ma'am?" Thane asked politely.

"Two of you, two points of attack," McKay stated. "Thane, with me, Jack with Lendon. We need to even the odds in biotic firepower here. Don't hold back, okay? Elites won't."

"Holding back ain't in my vocabulary, lady," Jack said grinning a toothy smile and pounding her palm with a fist.

"Good, now strap in people," She ordered. "This thing is going to kick a little."

Barely a few seconds after that warning, just when Thane and Jack were holding on tight while the other ODSTs got in their seats on either side of the Pelican, the craft took off. Practically launching out of the _Crusty Chorka's_ hangar bay. The transport was currently traveling at excessive speeds now, firing all afterburners to send them charging into the asteroid field.

McKay watched as they entered, her eyes locked on their target ahead. She could see the small, two story circular building that was the security structure. Next to it, the taller communications building. The only thing partially obscuring her vision, several space rocks of varying size. The pilots had already begun bobbing and weaving through the debris, their hands steady on their respective sticks. McKay gripped the back of their seats tightly, trying to hold on as they dodged left and right. It wasn't just to avoid the asteroids, it was also to keep the enemy sensors guessing.

As they entered deeper into the field, plasma fire from the _Chorka_ started erupting overhead. The cockpit was lit up with blue resonance as the barrage commenced. McKay tried not to duck down as they flew beneath it all. She needed to project strength now more than ever. Flinching at the sight of exploding plasma torpedoes mere feet away would not help. It did not make things any less unnerving though.

Complications in the plan arose pretty quickly, although they hadn't been unexpected. You start shooting explosive plasma blasts into a packed asteroid field, you tended to move a few of said asteroids around a little. No friction in space meant when an explosion sent them flying, they really went flying. Small rocks hit the shields, but the bigger ones were the greater concern. One large bit of debris started hurtling right towards their cockpit window, sent hurtling into their path when one of the plasma shots blasted apart a nearby asteroid.

"Evade! Evade!" Shouted the pilot, pulling hard back on the stick.

The Pelican pulled hard downward, barely avoiding the incoming asteroid chunk. McKay grabbed the sides of the chair, barely avoiding falling clean over onto the floor. The Pelican jerked again just as she regained her footing and grip. They were now in the middle of a small asteroid storm, with rocks all flying around them, nearly crashing into their little craft.

"Stay on target!" She ordered.

"Trying," the pilot assured. "Not my fault there's a bit more chop than usual."

McKay looked back briefly, seeing the team holding on for dear life as the Pelican jerked around. Even for seasoned ODSTs, this was a bit much. When a smaller asteroid struck their side, the craft shuddered heavily. Buck jumped in his seat as they rocked about.

"I am never going to complain about the pods again," he said through gritted teeth.

"I second that," Dutch added, gripping his seat's straps hard.

McKay turned back to the front just in time to see them getting closer to their target. The Pelican, still going at high speed, turned it's nose up and started to climb. They approached the main asteroid, coasting near it's surface. They then flew clean past one of the anti-ship guns, still focused on the _Chorka_ far off in the distance. For all appearances, it seemed their treacherous little run had paid off. A lot more nerve wracking than usual, but it worked.

The Pelican the got over the security building. Sadly, it was not unguarded. The roof soon lit up with their own plasma fire, as grunts wearing sealed envirosuits took up embedded Shade turrets placed around the landing zone. The pilots opened up a spray of bullets from the Pelican's nose gun, ripping into two of the guns and killing a few extra enemies for good measure. It then got low over the roof, still firing off rounds as they opened the door at the back of the ship.

"Everyone out! Go!"

The ODSTs, plus Jack and Thane, quickly jumped out of the craft. Jack touched down first of course, a surge of biotic energy ripping apart a few hapless Covies nearby. When the rest of the team landed around her, they opened up with their guns, spraying lead in all directions. McKay was the last one off, landing right in the thick of the firefight with the rest of her Troopers. She immediately began assessing the situation. They needed to get inside, the operation was depending on them. There were some grunts blocking their way to their airlock. Also a gun emplacement nearby, currently occupied by the Pelican but not for long.

"Buck, have your squad lay down suppressing fire on that turret! Knock it out if you can!" She ordered, receiving a brief nod. "Jack, deal that enemy position near the airlock!"

"I got'em!" The bald woman assured. "Suck on shockwave dipsticks!"

Jack sent a rippling wave of energy that hit the grunts and sent them flying. As others tried to move to shore up the defense of the entryway, the other ODSTs opened up on them. Buck squad in the meantime lay down a heavy wall of fire on the Shade turret and surrounding forces across from them. Not only did they provide relief for the Pelican, but also Romeo took out the gunner.

"Pilot," McKay ordered through radio. "Veer off, wait for roof to be cleared!"

The Pelican pulled away, removing itself from the barrage of fire. As it did, the secondary airlock opened wide. A single Elite with a pair of grunts rushed up into the fray. Things were now becoming more urgent. They needed to get inside now before more substantial reinforcements arrived. She turned to Lendon.

"Sergeant, move your team up to the airlock," she ordered, tapping him on the shoulder. "Thane and I will cov-"

"I don't need your cover," he shouted back at her mid-sentence. "We can get to that door fine without you."

She would've protested, maybe called him out on the misconduct, but he was already taking off. Lendon opened fire on the airlock, moving up as part of his team circled around to the side. Classic flanking move, one the Elite didn't seem to pick up on as he sprayed fire on Lendon main thrust. Despite what he had said to her though, McKay had no intention of leaving him be. He was getting fire support whether he liked it or not.

She directed her fire at the Elite as Lendon approached. Forcing him to take cover while his shields recharged. She then sprayed a burst at one of the grunts on the direct flank. The shots hit the little alien in the head and he went down. Thane in the meantime had trained his crosshairs on the now suppressed Elite's position. Now firing blind, all one could see was his hand. It was enough for the drell assassin. One clean shot blew the plasma rifle out of the Covie's fingers. The alien jumped up slightly in pain, just as the flanking unit struck. Collis, who McKay could see at the head of the flanking unit, emptied his clip into the Elite and Lendon moved everyone up.

"Jack!" McKay called out. "Second team has reached the door! Link up with them!"

Jack disengaged from her current targets near the main airlock and moved towards the secondary. Already Buck had forced his squad's way to airlock, annihilating what was left of the grunts on guard duty. All that remained was getting inside. McKay joined up with them, Thane close behind her. Romeo was still struggling with the entry pad.

"Damn, they got it on lockdown," he growled, pounding his fist on the door. "I'm gonna rip it open!"

"Do it now!" McKay ordered. "We need in!"

Romeo ripped the pad off and he began tugging at wires. McKay looked to Lendon's group briefly and saw Jack going the less subtle route. She powered up her fist with biotic energy and then punched the pad. The system short circuited and it opened the airlock door. As Lendon's group piled inside, Romeo met similar success with his wires and their airlock opened as well.

"In, now!" McKay shouted to the team.

The squad squeezed their way inside the airlock, a tight fit to be sure. Eventually though the system began to cycle. However, McKay didn't suspect the Covenant to be just sitting around waiting for their hated enemy to just come walking to them. So she positioned Thane at the door along with Dutch who was carrying a large machine gun turret in his arms. When the inner airlock doors opened, peeking through the opening slit, McKay could see her hunch proved accurate. In front of them was a small squad of Covenant soldiers, Elites and grunts mostly. They didn't get the chance to react. Even before the door opened the whole way, Thane hit them with an area warp attack while Dutch began spraying bullets everywhere. His first kill was the head Elite, perforated by the rapid fire of bullet rounds easily. Buck tossed in a grenade through the opening slit of the door as well. It exploded among the Covenant forces, sending them into disarray.

They all forced their way inside the main hall now. McKay kept Dutch on point, his massive gun their main point of assault with Thane backing him up on biotics and both her and Nuck close behind. Everyone else would advance with them. The grunts still alive after the grenade's detonation had already begun pulling back, they had to keep up the momentum.

"Keep pressing," McKay ordered. "Get to the control room! It's one level down!"

Dutch let loose with machine gun as they moved down the corridor. The sound of the weapon seemed enough to scare the grunts further back. That lasted about until a corner up ahead. More Elites were there, guarding what appeared to be a way down to ground level. They had already set up a fortified position, setting up a number of barrier shields. The Elites opened up fire as soon as the spotted Dutch, forcing the ODST back into cover.

"They don't want us going that way," Dutch observed.

"No time to find another," McKay told him. "We need to take them down."

"That's why I'm here," Thane assured her. "I just need an opening."

Looking down the corridor, McKay spotted a doorway to the side. It was big enough to give a single person cover. Just what Thane needed.

"You'll get it," McKay told him. "Gilfoyle, Buck, I'm throwing a smoke grenade. While they're distracted open fire. That should give Thane the chance he needs to move up and get into cover."

"No problem, ma'am," Gilfoyle assured. "We'll get him where he needs to be."

McKay nodded and then moved back to the corner again. She popped a pin on her smoke grenade and threw it down the hall. It clattered against the walls and floor, bumping from one end to the other. One could hear an Elite growling in frustration. Without a clear shot, the Covenant officers and their charges opened fire randomly. Gilfoyle and Buck moved up into the open, spraying bullets down the corridor. They couldn't see much of the enemy either, but what mattered was forcing them to keep their heads down, not hitting them.

Thane moved instantly, as expected. Before the smoke even cleared he was in position, sniper rifle in hand. When the smoke started to clear, Buck and Gilfoyle retreating to the opposite corner of the hallway, the Elites renewed their more accurate defense. They didn't know that Thane was where he was though. The drell waited for one to step out slightly from the protective shield barriers. Then, Thane got a bead on his head and fired, putting a shredder round clean through the alien's skull. Thane moved to fire another shot, but the second Elite had already moved back to the safety of the shield barrier. One less Elite though, so it was time to lay on the pressure.

"Dutch! Spray'em!" McKay ordered.

Dutch moved into the open, sending a hundred some odd rounds into the Covenant position. The rest of the ODSTs joined in, kneeling beside the corners of the hall. They caught a few grunts unawares, but the Elite was still behind protection with two other little gas suckers. One of said gas suckers armed a plasma grenade and tossed it in their direction.

"Back away!" McKay ordered.

The explosive fell a bit short, but they could still feel the shockwave and the heat from behind their cover. Thane was unaffected by the blast though and in the commotion used the opportunity to his advantage. He aimed the sniper rifle down at one of the barriers' generator pads. He fired it dead center, destroying the mechanism. When the barrier powered down, the Elite and his squad were exposed.

"Pour it on, people!" Buck shouted.

The Elite started to back up, realizing his protection was gone. He was already near the door to the ramp downstairs when the bullets started flying again. Dutch moved after him, McKay close behind, providing extra fire as they pushed up together. The other Drop Troopers followed behind, adding their own fire to the mix.

The grunts were shot down as they descended, but the Elite kept fighting. As he turned the ramp's corner, descending to the first floor though, he left himself open from above. Thane jumped down, firing blasts from his rifle. The Elite's shields went down, but he stayed standing. The drell dropped on the Covie's shoulders and then jumped off behind him. The Elite turned to strike him, but Thane ducked the swipe. He hit the Covie with a warp attack that seared the alien's genes, he finished him off with a submachine gun burst to the chest.

"I could get used to having an alien assassin around," Buck said as he and the other ODSTs moved down the ramp to regroup with him.

"Yeah, but I bet you Lendon beat us to the door," Romeo said. "Dude has the bald juggernaut after all."

"She is indeed impressive," Thane commented. "Although, clearly not as subtle."

"Not a race," McKay reminded them all. "Move out."

They got up to the doors for the control room next. They stacked up against the doorframe with guns at the ready. Dutch got the breaching charge onto the door while McKay contacted Lendon. They needed this to go off at the same time.

"Team Two, we are in position," she said through the radio. "Status?"

" _Good to go,"_ Lendon replied. _"Tore through these bastards easy. Let's get this over with already."_

" _More like I tore through them,"_ Jack declared proudly. _"I threw one Elite head first into a wall."_

"You can share kills later," McKay told her. "We're breaching in five, starting now."

Dutch got his hand on the trigger, waited for McKay's go and then hit it. The door burst open and the ODSTs on both sides rushed in sequence. Bursts of fire erupted from both ends as their charged into the room. The Covenant returned fire, but they took several casualties in the initial entry, all grunts of course. The Elites had positioned them by the doors while they took cover further back within the mess of control consoles and servers.

McKay spread her squad out along the length of their entryway. Thane laid down sniper fire from his position, suppressing the Covies. McKay stayed beside Buck as they opened fire into the mix of Covenant soldiers now holding up in the center of the room.

"Don't damage the main security console," McKay ordered. "We need it to shut those guns down!"

As McKay said that, biotic attacks started hitting the Elites. Pummeling biotic strikes smashed down on the Covenant Officers. It was obviously Jack, especially when they overheard a bunch of swearing from the other end of the room followed by shotgun burst. McKay looked up to see Jack send a shockwave out that threw an Elite out of cover before she then blew his head off. A second Elite charged her from the right, slashing at her with a plasma sword, but she ducked under him and sent a biotic punch into his stomach that sent him flying. She was forced to move into cover though, as plasma fire raked her general area. Thane relieved her though, firing a sniper round into the back of the head of her assailant.

"Move in Troopers!" McKay ordered "They're faltering!"

They two teams now pushed in, laying heavy fire on the remaining Covenant, encircling them from every flank. Eventually, only one Elite remained. Riddled with bullets, bleeding profusely. He roared and aimed his rifle at McKay who shot him in the head with a full burst. Her weapon still smoking and the alien's body still warm, she turned to her team.

"Fan out, secure the room, get me into that system," McKay ordered. "Shut those guns down!"

The squad did as told, save for Lendon who hung around, almost glaring at her. She almost asked if he had something to say. She didn't have to.

"So far so good," he said. "And we didn't need a single Spartan. Hell, my team didn't even need an alien."

"You didn't need Jack either," McKay informed him, returning his glare. "But she improved your chances. I could've taken both of them on my team, but I didn't want you missing out on a resource. If you're going to be picky in what you use to get the job done, then you're setting yourself up for failure. Simple as that."

"Maybe," Lendon huffed. "Still surprising you didn't ask for one of the lab freaks though."

Freaks, Lendon had adopted Silva's old slur for the Spartans it seemed. That may have been alright with him, but he was gone. This unit wasn't going to deal with that petty shit anymore, not if she could help it.

"Those soldiers, not freaks, soldiers, have their own mission," McKay informed him. "One as risky and as vital as our part in this. You either respect that or you keep your mouth shut about it. Are we clear, Sergeant?"

"Clear, ma'am," Lendon responded, crass venom in his voice. "Nice to know where you stand."

"With the UNSC, Sergeant," McKay reminded him sternly. "Same as you, same as the Spartans, same as the _Normandy's_ aliens and, for the moments, the Pirates and their four-eyed friends. I suggest you remember that for the future."

Lendon snorted and walked away. McKay wanted to chew him out some more, reprimand him even. He was pushing her though, wanting her to do that. Probably so he could become a martyr to the others. The real Drop Trooper who stood up to the dirty traitor. She'd wait for him to actually cross a line, in the meantime she'd file a disciplinary report for Haverson and Holland. Once they got through this of course.

She looked over briefly to see Thane and Jack, just chatting away it seemed. Wasn't hard to overhear what it was about, of course. Jack was not exactly, well, a quiet person.

"Nine, how about you?" She asked the drell.

"About six," he relented. "Although one of them involved the use of some acrobatics."

"I prefer the blunt approach," Jack shrugged. "Sent one of the gas breathers into his superior officer and shot at his pack. Methane blew, pack flew right off, I think it busted a mandible or two. Guy was still trying to fight, but biotic boot to the head ended that quick."

Jack lightly punched the drell in the arm.

"Relax, you got plenty of time to catch up," she said grinning. "Just try not to go for fancy shots. A kill is a kill."

"Forgive me, I'm not as competitive as you," Thane expressed solemnly. "My former occupation wasn't exactly something the hanar wanted treated as a game. Just because they're using assassins doesn't mean they wanted us to take the matter lightly."

"Those guys always have a few quibbles don't they?" Jack asked chuckling. "I mean, you're killing people and they want you to be respectful about that. Even when they put hits out they need to be super polite about it."

"I don't ask anyone to understand it, just respect it," Thane explained. "However, in this case, I will try to beat you if only so this isn't boring."

"That's the spirit, Lizard Lips," Jack said while grinning a toothy smile.

McKay couldn't help but shake the mixture of reverence for the two, but also shame. These two were as different as possible, except maybe in the profession of killing. One was serene, the other violent. Yet somehow they got along. She hadn't been able to mend the differences in her unit nearly as well. She wondered how Shepard did it and could only assume it was because it just came to him. She needed to find a way to soothe over her detractors and soon. They couldn't keep operating with these divisions.

"Found the main switch, ma'am," Buck called over. "Should send a shutdown order to every gun they got set up in this asteroid field."

"Hit it then," McKay ordered. "It's time the Pirates pull their weight on this OP."

* * *

The word came in suddenly over the wire. The guns were down, the ODSTs had pulled it off. The Jackals cheered and cackled with glee. Zek called out to them, unsheathing his energy cutlass.

"To the ships, boys!" He ordered. "Pile in! We have us a rock to plunder!"

The Pirates wasted no time in boarding the awaiting Phantoms. Somehow they all got aboard without trampling each other, it was that chaotic. Miranda and the rest of the _Normandy_ crew got aboard the lead Phantom with Zek. As soon as he got inside, the dropship lifted off the hangar floor and headed out into the void of space. Soon the rest of the task force was right behind him, flying in perfect formation. Miranda still had reservations about their professionalism, but she couldn't fault their speed. Even if it was incredibly disorganized.

They wouldn't have to fly a great distance to reach their target. The _Serpent's_ cloaking device had managed to get them pretty close to the facility. They still needed to keep out of range of the more sophisticated scanning equipment, but they weren't too far out. That was important, because Zek's plan relied on speed and surprise in this stage. At the moment, the enemy's focus was primarily on the _Crusty Chorka_ currently firing on them and possibly the ODST attack on the security building. They wouldn't suspect a second ship had already gotten within their perimeter and was prepared to launch transports. The guns were indeed offline, but there was still a large security ship prowling around. Also, they really didn't want to give that cargo transport the chance to flee.

"Crank the volume, Pilot," Zek ordered. "Boz should be playing my request!"

"Request?" Tali asked confused.

She got her answer seconds later, as Boz the Buzzard's voice filled the inside of the Phantom.

" _Just got word that the raid is on boys! We got Phantoms barreling down on that Plasma Coil facility right now! Shipmaster Zek requested a special song for the occasion and we're playing it now! Kickstart my Heart! Motley Crue! Go get'em mates! Show'em what us Pirates are made of!"_

The 1980s rock song began to echo within the confined spaces of the Phantom. An unearthly shrieking scream arose from the speakers, nearly bursting Miranda's ear drums. She gritted her teeth and bared the obnoxious sound, this wasn't her mission it was Zek's. She was just here to make sure he stayed on the level. Dealing with his stupid taste in music was part of the job. Tali and Mordin weren't nearly as repulsed, but they clearly didn't get the song at all. Kasumi though was too busy bobbing her head from side to side. Figures she'd be into this, Miranda thought.

The Phantoms coasted close to the docking section of their target structure and the ship locked into it. They trained all undercarriage guns onto the docking clamps, locking onto them with relative ease. Zek wasted no time in proceeding with the first phase of the plan.

"Melt'em down!" He ordered.

A furious barrage of plasma bolts flew forth, slamming into the docking area with ceaseless abandon. Explosions erupted across the section, as the bolts collided with the delicate instrumentation. Miranda could easily see a plume jut out from a major docking clamp. It burst out into space and the Phantoms had to pull up at the last second, barely avoiding the potential damage.

"Major damage to the docking clamp mechanism, sir," the pilot announced. "They're stuck in locked position."

"That should buy us plenty of time to take the plant," Zek said confidently. "Get us to the roof, we're taking this place from the top down!"

The Phantoms moved over the rood of the structure and began peppering it with fire. They probably shouldn't have bothered, there was nothing to shoot. More than likely they had recalled everyone inside after the ODSTs had pulled this same trick. They only had one Pelican, there were three Phantoms here. She doubted anyone liked those odds.

With their suits sealed and airtight, the Jackal Pirates dropped from the Phantom shouting with bloodthirsty zeal. Miranda was the first of her team to get onto the ground, using biotic to cushion her fall of course. Everyone else took the anti-grav beam down. With the roof clear there was little to do except head to the airlocks and get inside. Between Tali and Kasumi, the locks didn't stand a chance. They sliced into the system through the keypad and bypassed the lockdown parameters, opening every airlock all at once.

"It's going to be tight in there," Zek warned Miranda as he got inside the airlock with his entourage. "They obviously didn't think holding the roof was worth it, so I suspect they've built up heir defenses inside instead."

"I surmised the same thing," Miranda answered. "You have a plan?"

"Stay behind my people with the shields," he told her. "That should allow you and your squad to kick all the ass. Classic tactic of pirate raids, we use it all the time."

She had seen it herself, usually from the other side. Jackals tended to act like secondary shielding for their compatriots, offering roving cover for Elites and grunts alike. However, when she saw the Jackals near the exit of the airlock preparing their shields in an interlocked pattern, she recognized the difference. Zek's pirates had more coordinated defense, one more similar to classic military tactics. She had read about this in the after action reports from her various squadmates, particularly Kasumi's. This was her first time seeing it in action.

As the airlock opened, green plasma bolts flew at them. The Jackals raised their shields to block, pushing forward and firing back at the small squad of grunts blocking their way. Miranda wasted no time in assisting, using her biotics to lift on grunt off the ground and them slam him back into it. At the same time she sprayed her submachine gun into the corridor, killing a second grunt with a trailing shots. That kill was followed shortly after by a plasma bolt striking another grunt right in the face.

The line broke fairly easily and the gas breathing aliens retreated, firing back at the swarming pirates as they ran. Zek poked his needler rifle in between his shield bearers and fired at the fleeing Covies, hitting one in the back with three clean shots. As the little methane sucker exploded, Zek turned back to his men.

"Do not get cocky," he cautioned them. "Remember, they're plasma sponges. The Elites are up ahead and they won't run. Shields up front, do not be afraid to overcharge."

They moved down the initial hall towards another door. If Miranda had studied the plans of this place right, this led to the structure's manufacturing center. There was likely a catwalk or platform overlooking the area behind this doorway, as well as several Covenant soldiers no doubt. Once again, Zek was prepared for that.

"Ms. Goto, your assistance if you please," he requested.

Kasumi got in position next to the door and Zek hit the button on the pad. As it slowly opened, Kasumi tossed a flashbang grenade inside. Miranda looked away briefly as a devastating bright light lit up the catwalk beyond the doorway. A whole squad of Covenant soldiers was now blinded, but everyone else could see just fine. Miranda aimed her pistol down at a single Elite out of cover and, after using her overload program to scramble his shields, fired two clean shots into the alien's face.

Once her shots rang out, the rest of the pirates charged inside. They kept a shield wall out in front to protect their advance, but they still hooted and hollered like maniacs as they rushed inside. The grunts were fearful, quickly cowering behind cover. The Elites of course stood their ground, even with their eyes partially blinded still. One Elite, even after getting his shields decimated by a plasma overcharge burst continued shooting at the wall of shields, hoping his rapid fire would knock them back. However, when suddenly erupted in flames that hope was dashed.

"Suggest moving forward," Mordin said as he lowered his omni-tool. "Crosswalks in area problematic! Need to protect flanks!"

"Agreed," Miranda concurred. "We have to keep up the aggression! Stick with Zek's shield troops, watch our sides!"

They moved onto the platform proper, Jackals covering them as they pushed up. Miranda got a better view of the manufacturing plant itself. Massive machines occupied the area, there were metallic presses stretching the length of the room, electrical conduits sparking overhead, laser printers speedily drawing into material and in the center appeared to be a molten vat still spewing out metal into moulds. This was where they made the plasma coils, the whole reason they were here.

Miranda tried to not let the sounds of the still functioning plant distract her. Reaching out with her powers, she ignited an Elite with Warp. Even reeling in pain it still managed to fire back on her, forcing her to duck for cover. She gritted her teeth and started looking for another way. This place was full of volatile equipment, surely some of it could be used to their advantage. She spotted what appeared to be control box next to some machinery where the Elite she attacked stood. He was joined by a few grunts. Good, multiple targets. Using overload, Miranda hit the control box with a blast of electrical energy. It crackled and exploded, shocking the grunts to death and sending their Commanding Officer flying across the catwalk and over a railing to his death.

She moved up again, walking behind a Jackal as he pushed forward with his shield. She added her submachine gun to his sustained needler fire on an Elite taking cover behind some machinery up ahead. However, they suddenly took fire from their left front as a second Elite targeted them. The Jackal dropped down on one knee, trying to maintain cover under the withering fire. Miranda in the meantime scanned for a safer location to retreat to, but she could find none.

Then, the second Elite took a blast of energy to his side. Electrical arcs assaulted him relentless as a purple combat droid attacked him. It was followed up by a large blue blast of plasma-like energy that disintegrated him on contact. Miranda looked to see Tali already reloading the Geth Shotgun in her arms and charging the weapon once more for another shot. This time she aimed at an Elite holding down a position to their right flank, hitting him with a fully charged shot.

"You okay?" Tali asked the XO.

"Fine, just keep watching the flanks," Miranda told her.

Tali nodded and moved forward. Despite the fact they probably didn't like each other, the quarian was indeed a team player. That wasn't a surprise, what was though was Zek himself. Miranda caught him further up, sniping at targets further along the catwalks. He seemed to move from one to the other with little hesitation or pause. She couldn't tell if he was hitting anything, but it seemed more like he was suppressing than anything else.

"Second airlock team has ripped through a barricade they had set up ahead, but our third team is having trouble," he shouted aloud. He then pointed to three Jackals behind him, one of them with a beam rifle. "You, move up along the right side of the platforms. Find their turret and silence the gunner. We need to keep squeezing these fools."

"Yes, sir!" The sniper complied, before he and the two other Jackals moved out.

Miranda wasn't expecting to see Zek was actually capable as a field commander. Perhaps the idea of profit focused him a bit more. Whatever the reason for his tactical awareness, at least it had dashed some of her fears that this would be a mess. However, she knew Zek's reputation. Sooner or later he'd probably do something stupid and reckless if the situation called for it. When that happened, she'd have to salvage this.

"I hope Shepard is having more fun with the Spartans," she grumbled under breath.

* * *

"Bank right!" Linda shouted. "Bank right!"

The Longsword nimbly turned it's wing up at the last second and the large green bolt sailed past. However, they were still taking light structural damage from the Banshees' main weapons and with all these asteroids it was hard to find a way to get on their tails.

"Retz's briefing said nothing about Banshees being part of the security here," Kat growled as she tried to steady herself against the wall of the craft.

"His intel must've been a bit outdated," Shepard suggested. "They probably only just got here. Real question is, how did they sneak up on us?"

"Possible hostile craft used asteroids to mask presence," Legion postulated. "If hiding near or on asteroids, sensors could have overlooked or missed threat entirely."

The Longsword shuddered as they took another hit to their fuselage. Armor seemed to be holding, but they were taking a lot of hits and they still had a lot of space between them and their target building. They needed to get rid of these pests and fast. It was then the Master Chief locked up on the stick, gripping it tightly in his hands.

"Doesn't matter how they hid from us," he said. "I'm getting rid of them now. Linda, pull hard to port on my mark and then back up on the stick when I say so."

"Copy," Linda told him. "Everyone else, better hold onto your butts."

As the crew of the Longsword braced themselves, Chief pulled a hard turn on the stick. The craft suddenly pitched hard to port, nearly flipping Shepard onto his back. The only thing keeping him standing straight was the fact his hands were grasped tightly to a rail bar on the wall. After he had recovered from the whiplash, he got a good look out the cockpit window. They were now staring straight at the flight of banshees chasing them. Chief had pulled off a one-eighty degree turn in the middle of a firefight with a craft that was the proportionate width of a bomber airplane. Even with no gravity, still impressive, especially in the middle of an asteroid field.

The Banshee's had little time to react, as Cortana had already locked on to all three of them with the Longsword's seeker missiles. Chief fired as soon as the hostiles appeared in the window, three big targeting reticles plastered across them. The enemy squadron tried to flee, but the missiles found their marks for two of them. The third, the lead Banshee was a bit more nimble, but Chief was already on him. He tracked the Banshee's position with the Longsword's rotary cannons and let loose. The high velocity rounds tore through the little Banshee like it was paper, disabling the craft long enough for the missile to find it's mark and turn the fighter into dust. Without even missing a beat, Chief turned the Longsword back around towards their target.

"Let's hope that's the only surprise Retz missed," Chief said as the Longsword eased back along it's path.

"I'll say, that was intense," Cortana spoke up over the radio. "If I had a stomach, I'd have thrown up from that maneuver. What's everyone else's excuse?"

"Legion has no stomach either," Shepard quipped. "Also, this is nothing compared to what everyone says about my driving."

"I did not have a large meal and I am most calm when in battle," Samara informed the AI.

"And Spartans just never get sick," Jun added jovially. "We're not allowed."

"Oh, so I don't have to worry about puke in this helmet," Cortana surmised. "That's a load off my mind. By the way, I've detected our entry point. Marking it on the sensors now."

Outside the cockpit window, they could see the target building looming large in front of them now. Located on the large asteroid that was central to the entire facility's operation was a large flat top structure with a wide base. This was the main administrative building which housed the workers and top level personnel.

More importantly it housed a lot of their data, operational reports and other valuable intelligence on their work with plasma coils. That made it a prime target. Also, it was attached to Manufacturing and Assembly plant next door. Attacking it meant forcing more security to engage with the Spartans rather than the Pirates currently assaulting the place.

It made sense to use the Longsword for their insertion, it being fast and relatively stealthier than the Phantoms Zek was using. They had hoped they could use the ongoing chaos up front to basically sneak in the back door and take them by surprise. Circumventing the asteroid field to get into position had taken a solid hour, making them technically the first group to deploy into the field before anyone else. However, the surprise had been blown by the Banshees they hadn't expected to be waiting for them. It was likely they had already warned the Covenant inside Administrative what they had encountered before they were blown to bits. After getting hit twice now, the enemy was also probably wise to their insertion point.

Luckily, Cortana was ahead of them. As they got closer to the airlock they intended to dock with, she quickly started picking up enemy heat signatures on long range sensors. She instantly highlighted them on the targeting hub and as expected they were swarmed around the hallway next to their airlock.

"They know we're coming," the AI stated. "The second we attach to that airlock they're going to hit us hard."

"Then we should hit them hard first," Linda declared. "Are there any mission critical objectives located near that outer wall?"

"Not according to Retz's contacts if our briefing is accurate," Cortana answered.

"Then the corridor is expendable," Chief said, already warming up the rotary cannons.

With his thumbs pressed down hard on the triggers, Master Chief let loose a terrible storm of high velocity cannon rounds on the structure wall. Careful not to hit the airlock, he raked fire all along the Administrative building. Explosions erupted now an again as the shots inevitably hit something vital. And one by one, the heat sigs Cortana had detected went dark. Chief hadn't even finished the barrage before Linda armed some of the Longsword's weapons herself. Two missiles suddenly ejected out of their hardpoints and streamed straight into the building, causing a massive explosion that tore deep into it's wall. The Covies had built the place to stand up to the stray asteroid of course, so it wasn't like they had tore open a huge gash in the structure. When the bullets stopped flying though, there was clear heavy damage to everything save the airlock.

"Nothing critical, structure is holding," Cortana reported as she got back information on her sensors. "Atmospheric controls have already kicked in to prevent total depressurization. Similar to what they use on ships in hangars. Point is, corridors are practically clear. Save for the bodies probably littering the place."

"I'm getting us inside now before they can regroup," Chief said, already initiating docking procedures. "They're not going to give up an inch of this place without a fight."

"Then we go in weapons hot," Shepard declared. "We should also make sure our suits are sealed, just in case those atmosphere control procedures fail."

It took less than a minute to do that, Spartan armor was already airtight and only Samara and Shepard needed to get their gear on. In that time, Chief had already docked with the airlock and put himself on point for the assault. Before long they were inside the building proper, weapons drawn and at ready, but there wasn't really much to shoot initially.

To the left and right of them the team could see the damage caused by their Longsword. The corridors looked absolutely shredded, as did the bodies of the Covenant sprawled out on the floor. Small fires were raging out of the electrical equipment and live wires dangled precariously from the ceiling. Despite the chaotic looking scene, the squad knew they could not remain out in the open. Shepard motioned Samara and Legion to take cover near a blown out wall, the hole exposing a nearby room. Chief did the same, positioning his Spartans near a door that had been destroyed by an explosion. Just as they got in place, the Covenant arrived.

Chief opened up first as the Elites entered the room, spraying a sustained stream of bullets at the Covenant officer. The shots raked the alien's shields, forcing him to cover. The Elite next to him tried to fire back, only for Linda to land a bullet between his eyes with her sniper rifle. As he fell, Kat moved into the room herself, taking up position behind a damaged console. With her BTR, she gunned down a few of the grunts as they tried push up to the door. A third Elite raked plasma on her position, but was taken out with two clean sniper shots from Jun, one to the chest and another to the head.

"Keep them bottled up," Chief ordered as he reloaded. "We have early control of this firefight, lets not lose it."

On the other end of the corridor, where Shepard's team were positioned near the open gash in the wall, a second team of Covenant moved into view. Legion fired first, it's Widow easily cutting down the Elite moving forward. Samara followed up with a singularity, lifting at least two grunts off the ground as they tried to scramble for cover. A concussive round struck near their cover, however, and they were forced to duck down. The room suddenly filled with at least three Ultra Elites, all armed with Concussive Rifles. Shepard gritted his teeth as he saw them moving up.

"Good thing I brought one of the toys Retz got us back on the Hollow," he said.

Shepard took his chosen heavy weapon off his back, a Covenant Plasma Grenade Launcher. Capable of firing plasma grenades that homed in on their targets, it was a devastating weapon if used accurately. He just needed some time to use it.

"Legion, send in a drone," he ordered. "I need a distraction."

"Copy, Shepard-Commander," Legion complied, activating a Combat Drone at once.

Legion's Drone instantly moved into the fray, blasting at the enemy with concentrated energy bursts. It nimbly avoided the concussive shots best it could. It didn't need to survive for long, just long enough for Shepard to get a lock on some of the Elites. He held down the trigger and looked through the scope of the launcher, tagging four Elites already in the room. He then released the trigger and let the grenades fly. They homed in on the Covies easily, sticking to three as they focused their attention on the drone. Each exploded seconds later, just as they tried to rip the grenades off them. Blue flaming bursts soon occupied the space where the Ultra Elites had once been.

The fourth Ultra Elite, however, saw the incoming projectile and rolled away just in time. The grenade could not correct it's course in time and instead stuck to a grunt's methane tank. The resulting explosion killed the grunt, but also damaged the Ultra Elite's shields. He ducked into cover behind a destroyed terminal to recover, but Samara would not have it. She sent a powerful throw attack that sent the broken bit of equipment slamming into the Elite. Both were rocketed across the room and slammed into the wall behind them. The Elite stood back up and in a rage fired back at the Justicar, but she centered her Rifle's crosshairs on him and let loose, filling him full of lead.

"Samara, move up with me," Shepard ordered. "Legion, keep us covered!"

"Acknowledged," the geth assured.

Shepard and Samara vaulted the hole in the wall and moved up behind a piece of debris within the room proper. They began taking fire from the remaining Covenant, but it was more sporadic. They still had the momentum and a foothold in this place, they just had to keep it and continue pushing. Curious as to how the others were doing, Shepard contacted one of the other assault teams, assuming it was already well underway by now.

"Garrus, we're in the Administrative building," he reported. "We've met resistance but we're pushing them back. What's your sitrep?"

* * *

"Similar," Garrus reported, as fire cut into the rock wall. "But said resistance is a bit unexpected. I'll try keeping you posted. Just worry about your end of things, Commander."

Garrus turned off the comm, returning his focus to his rifle's scope. Maybe he had been a little mean to his friend just then, but this part of the operation had not entirely gone to plan and he was not in his best frame of mind. The intel Retz had given them had revealed one of the latest shafts drilled into one of the larger asteroids in this mess of rocks. They had pulled it close to the main facility asteroid specifically to make it easier to mine because of how much raw material was inside it. That meant it was probably a good idea to destroy it. That way, the Covenant wouldn't be able to salvage anything for more coils when they eventually came to clean this mess up.

Insertion went okay, Garrus, Zaeed, Grunt and Jacob had landed on the rock via shuttle. They were accompanied by Varvok and his batarians who jumped down off of some Phantoms Zek had lent them. The rock was big enough to have it's own gravitational field of sorts so it was easy to walk on. Dealing with the preliminary defenses was easy enough. Although the hostiles were indeed thick and numerous, they quickly pulled back into the main shaft. Said shaft was also sealed via an airlock, so there was actually some atmosphere inside the mines themselves. They wouldn't have to worry about a single bullet puncturing their seals and causing them to suffocate. It looked like they had the enemy cornered.

Then they heard the buzzing.

Drones, the Covenant's insectoid henchmen were inside the damn mines in droves. It was possible there was a small hive somewhere down here. Garrus mentally hit himself for thinking it was going to be that easy, just in and out, plant explosives and run. It was stupid of him to assume it would be that easy, now they had to contend with these bugs.

Garrus picked out one of Drones as it buzzed around, strafing at some batarians trying to stay behind some rocks for cover. A good clean shot ripped through the bug's side and tore off one of it's wings. Unable to control itself, it smashed into a nearby wall and fell to the mine shaft's floor. Now free from enemy fire, the batarians moved up, shooting as they went. One of them even fired a submission net at two Drones before they could take off again, allowing his fellows to finish them off as they struggled to free themselves.

However there were always more drones within the swarm willing to replace those who had fallen. As Garrus made a break for a large excavator machine, plasma fire began to spray all around him. He turned quickly to fire a burst of rounds, taking out one Drone with a lucky shot. As he dropped, another bug replaced him in the formation. Garrus slid into cover at the last second as an overcharged bolt near burned through his shields.

As he hugged the side of the excavator another of his teammates rushed up beside him. Jacob was hurriedly reloading his shotgun, gritting his teeth as he did.

"They're practically all over these caverns," he grimaced. "You think they're here for more than just security? Like they mine the minerals themselves?"

"Possible," Garrus said nodding his head at the reasonable assessment. "I doubt the Elites are big on digging through rock. Speaking of, you see any of the Elites we chased in here?"

"One or two, but low level," Jacob informed him. "Varvok took them out and pushed up into the shaft they were in. No idea where he could be now though."

"Hopefully he's looking for structural weakpoints," Garrus told his squadmate. "Right now, we got to focus on pushing for the central atrium. I got a hunch that's where their hive is. Where are Zaeed and Grunt?"

There was a loud bellowing roar and the sound of squishing followed by booming shotgun blasts. Garrus turned to see Grunt several feet away with a small squad of batarians at his back. The krogan was grabbing at a Drone's throat before ripping it's head from it's torso. He then tossed the remains into another Drone before blasting his Claymore into a third as it flew overhead. He laughed uproarious as the creature's guts fell around him.

"Well, there's one," Jacob noted. "Enjoying this more than he should, as usual."

Just then, the sound of a Viper sniper rifle sounded above and behind them. On a ledge beside their excavator, Zaeed stood sniping Drones out of the air. He managed to get another headshot, but that was when he started taking fire from the ravenous insects as they started to swarm the area.

"Give him cover!" Garrus shouted aloud.

Jacob switched to his sidearm and began firing at the Drones assaulting Zaeed. Garrus did the same with his sniper rifle, managing to shoot down a few of the bugs and garner the attention of others. Jacob eventually used a pull attack to force one Drone to hurtle away backwards as he filled the bug with bullets.

Then a fiery explosion erupted in the middle of the small distracted swarm. Zaeed had tossed an inferno grenade into the mix. Now the Drones were burning alive in mid-air as flames scorched their exoskeletons. One by one, they fell to the cavern floor and Zaeed followed them, sliding down the side of the ledge on his back. When he hit the ground he charged forward towards the excavator and threw himself beside both Jacob and Garrus.

"The buggers are everywhere," he growled. "We don't do something soon they'll tear us apart. I hope you got a plan, Garrus."

"More or less, but it won't get done sitting here," he told him. "Follow me, stay close. We're going to try and link up with Grunt."

They moved swiftly across the field as the Drones swarmed above them. One dove at them, charging it's weapon as it flew towards them. Jacob centered his sights on the alien and fired a shotgun blast into it's face. It crashed into the ground, kicking up dirt and rock as it tumbled over itself before finally falling limp to the floor. Garrus in the meantime targeted Drones attached the to the walls around them, firing at the trio from on high. He scored a clean hit on one of the bugs, piercing it's head with a single shot. It went limp and dropped to the cavern floor with a crunchy thud.

It seemed to be going well, but as they neared Grunt's position things suddenly took a turn. There was a blaze of fire in front of them as three Drones swooped down from above in formation. Garrus, Zaeed and Jacob scattered as the plasma flew at them, barely avoiding the barrage. Then suddenly, there was a loud bang, all three of the Drones pitched in the air at once, their bodies contorting as if something hard had slashed through each of them. Garrus' keen eyes traced the trail of a shot as the aliens fell and spotted Varvok a few feet away. He was holding a Kishock Harpoon Gun in his arms, a powerful weapon in the right hands, capable of cutting through multiple targets.

"Vakarian," the batarian leader said aloud as Garrus and his squadmates reached cover. "I see I came back just in time. We've rigged a number of potential faults in the shafts already. We still have more to go though."

"And we need to get through these guys first," Garrus reminded him. "Don't worry though, I got an idea. You just need to have your men move in behind the big angry krogan."

Garrus looked over to Grunt, currently smashing the head of a dead Drone in with his foot, and shouted at him.

"Grunt! We need you to carve us a path!" He ordered aloud. "If you threaten the hive they'll fallback to defend it and we can cut them down! Push up with the batarians and we can cover you!"

"Sounds good to me!" Grunt shouted back.

The krogan roared, lifting his assault rifle high into the air. He charged forward, firing his weapon at the swarm above. The batarians joined in, filling the skies with lead as they moved deeper into the main atrium. As Garrus suspected, the swarm suddenly shifted it's focus, moving to follow the sudden incursion. The buzzing suddenly became more focused on Grunt's group and did not nearly surround them as much as before. Seizing the opportunity, Varvok moved to the front of the line with Garrus and gave an order to the rest of his soldiers.

"Switch to inferno rounds! Burn them out of the air!"

The batarians obeyed and laid into the swarm with furious abandon. They were all so focused on trying to catch up and stop the threat to their hive that they had forgotten there were more enemies about. Burning, disintegrating bodies tumbled from on high, crashing to the ground in heaps as lead flew through the air. The swarm started to break up, the Drones panicking, not sure where to go and who to fight. That was the chance Garrus had been hoping for.

"Move in!" He ordered. "Take them down!"

The combined force of Batarians and Garrus' squad pushed forward, deeper into the main tunnel shaft. Into the very heart of the mine itself. They soon forced their way to the central atrium, burned and broken bodies of Drones choking the caverns around them. They found the hive, a waxy, dripping mess that seemed to hand precariously from the walls and ceiling.

Already Garrus could see Grunt had pushed him and the batarians with him all the way to this position. Currently, he seemed engaged with the Elites they had chased into these mines from the start. Zaeed quickly lined up a shot with his sniper rifle on one Elite he had a flank on and fired, blowing a hole clean through the alien's head.

"Push up and provide our brethren support against the Elites," Varvok ordered one of his soldiers. "Anyone with a firestorm, burn this hive to ground! We need to get back to the matter at hand."

Garrus could already see Varvok's orders in motion, as Firestorm wielding batarians pushed up under sustained fire support towards the hive sections of the atrium. They let loose torrents of flame, both on the battered swarm and the insectoids' living spaces. Screams of anguish replaced the buzzing as the Drones went up in flames and their hive along with them.

The Elites had lost their air support, but they did not seem deterred by the chaos around them. They kept trying to consolidate a defensive perimeter around what was left. Even with flames all around them, they refused to give up.

Garrus decided they had wasted enough time. He'd leave the job of hunting down the Elites to Varvok for now. He needed to start laying charges. Scanning the walls of the atrium with his omni-tool, he looked for fault lines, cracks in rock, any potential weaknesses in the asteroid's foundation. When he spotted one, a particular stress point in the wall, he attached a explosive charge to it and readied it for detonation.

"You think we really got enough bombs to blow this whole rock to hell?" Jacob asked.

"Maybe, maybe not, but we're not going to want to be inside it when these do go off," Garrus warned. "At the very least we're going to destroy a lot of their valuable resources."

Regardless of the concerns, they were pulling this out of the fire. If everyone else's jobs were going as smoothly as their was right now, they'd be wrapped up in no time at all.

* * *

Jack fired her shotgun at the Elite behind the console, but only managed to kill his shields. The eight-foot alien growled at the woman and kept firing, forcing Jack to duck back into the corner of the wall. As plasma bolts struck near her, she balled her hand into a fist, positioning herself to swing out of cover when the moment came. As expected, the firing stopped as the plasma rifle started to overheat. She then threw herself out of cover and sent a rippling shockwave straight at the Elite. He tried to duck away, but wasn't fast enough and ended up getting tossed into the air. Jack finished him off blasting at him with her shotgun, hitting him in the stomach.

She quickly ducked behind another console though as she easily spotted another Elite behind a server tower nearby. His plasma bolts sailed over her head as she kept low to the ground and behind her cover. She hated how many of these bastards there were still breathing. She somewhat hoped that the security building was where the majority of the guards were. Instead, the communications building was just as packed.

McKay had split the team up into seek and destroy squads, slowly but surely clearing every piece of this place. Right now, they were a data collection room just a little ways off from the Central Control. The Elites inside were not being very cooperative of course, stubbornly clinging to every nook and cranny just like their friends.

Lucky for Jack, she wasn't alone. Popping up from behind a nearby terminal, Thane fired his sniper rifle at the hostile alien, managing to hit him in the shoulder. Hardly enough to kill an Elite, but at least it split the bastard's focus a little. He retreated a bit into his corner as he shifted fire to the sniper. They needed to flush him out now. That was when Jack's other squadmates finally offered some worthwhile assistance.

Corporals Fadden and Travers shifted their own focus to this side of the room. Travers fired a continued stream of bullets at the pinned Elite before Fadden tossed a grenade behind the servers themselves. The Elite suddenly tucked and rolled out of his cover, and explosion erupting behind him. That did little to deter him, as he quickly pointed his gun at the humans and sprayed plasma in their direction. Travers let loose again with another burst, this one aimed at the Elite's knee cap. The big alien took a bad hit to his leg, his already weakened shields disrupted. Thane then quickly reeled the Elite in with a pull attack, sliding the Covie across the floor like a ragdoll. Jack saw her opportunity as the Elite passed her cover and fired a final shot into the alien's head, killing him.

"Thats it, no more Covies, motion tracker clear," Travers said. "We're done here."

"Took your sweet time doing it," Jack said jumping up from her cover. "Where the fuck were you?"

"Dealing with the other end of the problem and protecting your ass," Fadden declared, aggressively pointing his finger at her. "Or would you have rather we let those grunts flank you?"

"Please, Thane could've covered the whole damn room from overwatch," Jack argued approaching the Drop Trooper. "You took the easy job while we had to deal with a whole pack of Elites!"

Jack was about two feet away from Fadden when Thane stopped her in her tracks, placing himself between her and the Drop Trooper.

"Jack, please, this is not necessary," he told her. "Fadden and Travers covered our flank. They did what their training required of them. We should not judge their choice of tactics."

"Bullshit we can't," Jack countered. "These fuckers have been on our case since we left the damn ring. Hell, this whole mission I've had to babysit their fucking asses. Stuck on point being the damn biotic shield while they take up the rear."

"You're the one with the freaky powers, lady," Travers informed her. "You're an advantage and we're using you. End of story. Don't like it? Go back to your little melting pot ship of xenos."

Jack almost lunged at Travers, but again Thane stopped her.

"Use me? You don't fucking use me, asshole!" She screeched at him, trying to force herself past Thane. "I'm the only reason any of you fuckers are still breathing!"

"Back off, psycho," Travers declared, not so subtlety reaching for his sidearm. "I don't care how hard you hit, I will put you down."

"I'd like to see you fucking try you sack of shit!" Jack roared.

Thane finally gained control of the situation, forcing Jack back. He shook his head at her sternly as she kept fuming.

"This is not the time or place," he told her firmly. "They are not our enemy, remember that."

"They ain't our friends either, Lizard Lips," Jack reminded him. "They're ungrateful assholes who still think their dipshit dead leader wasn't a fucking idiot."

"Major Silva was a real soldier," Travers growled. "He stood up for the principles of humanity, he didn't turn to the damn Covies for help like you all did."

"Yeah, he just only almost infected the entire galaxy with a deadly parasite," Jack sardonically quipped. "But hey, at least he was loyal to humanity, right? Who cares if his dumb ass could've got them all turned into zombies, you included."

Now Travers looked enraged, although he was a lot more subdued. His fists balled up he made a sharp move towards Jack and Thane.

"Why you little-"

He only got half an inch before Fadden stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Save it man, they ain't worth it," he stated plainly. "This whole damn OP ain't even worth it."

"I find that highly debatable," Thane argued. "While not a major facility, it's destruction and plunder could yield benefits for the war effort down the line. A better understanding of how the Covenant create and manufacture their weapons would be beneficial to the UNSC."

"Don't give me that garbage," Fadden snorted. "This is a waste of time, just like that Carrier and that stupid trip to that Pirate Lair. These fucking Jackals keep leading us on one goose chase after another. If you don't see that than you're more blind than McKay is."

Thane narrowed his gaze at the Corporal.

"I suggest you not insult your superior officer, especially not in front of me," he warned. "I'm more than obligated to inform command of your conduct."

"My fucking word against yours, reptile," Fadden argued. "What makes you think anyone will take your scaly ass seriously? Or your crazy bald friend's for that matter."

"Drell have perfect memories, dipstick," Jack snidely informed him. "Plus, I can assure you, Holland and McKay trust us a shit ton more than any of you bitches."

Fadden looked a bit shaken, his eyes shifting between the two of them. Finally he just shrugged and moved away.

"Lets link back up with the others, we're done here," Fadden told Travers, pulling out of the room.

As they left, Jack let out an annoyed sigh.

"I totally could've punched their eyes into the back of their skulls," she grumbled.

"I know, but that probably would've made things worse," Thane cautioned. "We don't want to get McKay or Shepard in trouble with Holland after all. Reacting to their petty insults with violence isn't going to resolve this."

"No, I guess not, but it would make me feel better," she growled under her breath.

After a moment, Jack composed herself. The anger drifted away, but her concern remained.

"They're gonna get us killed if this keeps up," she said. "You know that, right?"

"The Silva loyalists are a problem, yes," Thane agreed. "But they are one only McKay can solve. They are her unit. All we can do is to support her endeavors."

"It just sucks not being able to fix this shit myself," Jack said in frustration. "I mean, fuck man. We save them from getting chewed up and or blown up and they act like we're in the wrong. It isn't fair. I mean, we saved people! Doesn't that mean we get some fucking credit? A little gratitude? Anything?"

"In my experience, you can never take those things for granted," Thane lectured. "Not everyone will appreciate what you do, even if it benefits them. Expecting thanks for all your good deeds is self-defeating."

Jack let out a self-derisive laugh at that.

"Yeah, ain't that the story of my life," she huffed.

"All that should matter in the end is whether or not you feel you've done the right thing," Thane continued. "Both for yourself and others. And if you find you haven't, well, you do what you can to correct it."

Jack smiled at that, a small smile, but it was there.

"You sound like a damn self-help book sometimes, you know?" She told him jokingly.

"I'll admit, I've been a reading my fair share of them," Thane responded shrugging. "I may be paraphrasing a few. But only a few."

Now that made Jack laugh a genuine chuckle.

"Did you just make a joke at your expense?" She said, still a little shocked. "I'll be honest, I didn't think you had it in you. A sense of humor I mean."

"I have my moments," he said, offering a slight smile of his own.

Hack thought it was nice to see to Thane lighten up a little, especially in moments like this. It helped soothe her thoughts a little. She didn't like everyone else seeing it though. It was weird how quickly they had become so close. She wasn't sure why she kept hanging around Thane, she only knew she liked the company. She liked having someone to talk to, who seemed to get her for once. She didn't like how she kept getting stares and questions about it, especially from Miranda.

Then again, so what? She had a friend now, at least she thought she did. What business was it of theirs? Didn't make her soft, didn't change her. She just had someone she could tolerate being around now. Their problem if they couldn't accept it. She was fine, they were making awkward, not her.

"We should probably get back to McKay," Thane suddenly spoke up.

Lost in her thoughts, Jack hadn't noticed she had been staring at Thane for awhile now and then she noticed she had been smiling slightly that whole time. Instantly embarrassed, she cleared her throat suddenly and turned away.

"Yeah, um, get back, right," she said hurriedly. "We got more Covie chumps to kill and shit. Come on."

Jack took point, Thane close behind. She did her best to try and force a serious look on her face. She was not flushed. Not the slightest. No, definitely not awkward. Other people were awkward, she thought. She quickened her step a bit. She needed to find something to kill, maybe that would get her mind off this.

* * *

Retz stood on the bridge of the _Serpent_ his eyes scanning the various screens monitoring the situation. They were a bit behind schedule, but for the most part things were going smoothly. He liked this part of the job, managing things behind the scenes more or less. This being mostly his plan, he really enjoyed seeing it come together like it was. He was even more happy with the latest report.

"The Drop Troopers' leader just reported in," one of the bridge technicians reported. "She says communications are down. They weren't able to get through that static the Human AIs created either. The Covenant won't be interrupting our party."

"Excellent, I knew the ODSTs would be up to the task," Retz declared. "McKay is more capable than some of her insubordinate soldiers claim. Now, lets see about removing the only problem we got left. Status on that security ship?"

One of the deckhands quickly transfered the data to Retz's terminal. It showed a holographic display of another Corvette guarding a second cargo ship, different from the one currently trapped in dock. It was still coasting on the edge of the perimeter, protecting it's defenseless charge.

"They're still holding their ground between us and the main facility," the deckhand explained. "Guess they don't want to try their luck outside the asteroid field."

"Of course not, they know the _Crusty Chroka_ is out there along with us," Retz reminded him. "It's outnumbered and outclassed. It goes into open space and tries to jump it's dead and so is the Cargo Ship it's protecting. Not to mention it's little trapped friend. It's waiting to figure the situation out. We can't wait for that though. If the ground teams succeed in their missions, the security ship will fire on them before they can get away. Covenant are sore losers that way."

"So we're going in?" The same deckhand asked.

"Damn straight we are," Retz declared. "Take us across their bow, keep up above them. Take careful aim, we don't want to risk hitting the facility with our friends inside."

The _Serpent_ moved in and began targeting the security ship with precision lasers, aiming for their defensive systems. The ship quickly fired back with it's main guns, sending plasma hurtling towards the Pirate ship. The _Serpent_ turned hard to starboard but kept heading forward. Some of the plasma shots struck the underside shields, but they held for the most part. Retz chuckled a bit.

"Bet they suspected we wouldn't have those," he said. "As if Pirates have to play by Covie rules."

"We're practically in point blank range, sir," one of the deckhands reported.

"Then fire when ready," Retz ordered. "Aim for the gun batteries. Knock their teeth out."

The _Serpent_ opened fire, blasting away with its plasma cannons at the sides of the ship. One of the shots slammed into a main gun battery, sending up a plume of blue flame briefly into the void. The security ship tried to fire back, but Retz had the thrusters kick into overdrive and push them out of the way before any real damage could be done.

"Enemy has sustained significant damage, but they still got guns trained on us," one of the bridge techs warned. "Sensors indicate they're warming up for another shot."

"Persistent as always, but futile," Retz assured. "They can't shoot without targeting. Line our nose up with their bridge and charge up the forward gun. Burn them all alive."

The _Serpent_ turned hard, plasma fire striking them as they did. The _Serpent_ rumbled from the hits and Retz glowered in anger.

"Damage?"

"A lot of scorching to the hull and our belly shields are out," the bridge hand warned. "They keep hitting us like that and we're dust."

"We're out of time then, end this," Retz ordered. "Full power, now!"

The forward gun in the nose powered up, two three-barreled plasma torpedo launchers. They all fired at the same time, sending a barrage of fire right into the Security Ship's bridge. It tried to take evasive, but the shots were coming in too fast. The torpedoes hit their mark and Corvette's bridge exploded in a fiery blaze. Said explosions traveled along the length of the ship, igniting the remaining batteries. As the security ship started to roll over in the void, the bridge crew cheered in glee. Retz made a cutting gesture with his hand, silencing them.

"We're not done yet, boys," he cautioned. "Disable the cargo ship. They are not leaving."

The cargo ship was already trying to make a beeline for the perimeter, risking getting shot by the _Chorka_ , but they had no other recourse at this point. It was almost child's play to target their engines and fire precision plasma shots at them. After a few clean hits, the vessel was stopped dead in it's track, listing heavily forward, traveling on what little momentum it had left.

"Get a crew in some Phantoms and secure our prize," Retz ordered. "Zek ain't the only one who's going to take a ship today."

"Speaking of, sir, you might want to take a look at this," a technician called up. "We may have a problem."

A long range video feed was sent to Retz's monitor. It was centered on the docking area of the main facility, where the other cargo ship was currently stuck. Retz could see what appeared to be sparks igniting along the fused and melted docking clamps. When he magnified the image, he spotted several unggoy in sealed suits taking blowtorches to the clamps themselves. Retz scowled at the sight, this was just cheating now. He also saw at the side of screen something else, power fluctuations from the core. That wasn't good. He quickly opened a communication channel.

"Zek, you got a problem," he informed his friend. "They're trying to cut the cargo ship free from it's moorings. They get those clamps off they're going to be free to make a run for it. If these readings are right they're already warming up for slipspace! They're gonna risk it rather than be disabled!"

" _Damn cheaters,"_ Zek grumbled in response. _"Okay, I got a plan to speed this up. Contact Varvok, see how far along he is with that mine. Meantime, I'm gonna work on getting outside."_

"Outside?" Retz asked, only slightly nervous.

" _Relax, I got this,"_ Zek assured, before calling out. _"Ms. Zorah, Ms. Goto! I require your assistance!"_

It was then Zek cut the line, leaving Retz to just sigh.

"I hate it when he says 'I got this'," he said shaking his head. "It means he's going to do something really stupid."

"What do we do, sir?" A bridge hand asked.

"What we always do," Retz begrudgingly shrugged. "Hope this doesn't blow up in his face and get prepared to pick up the pieces if it does. Take us in close to that cargo ship, maybe we can deter them from trying to jump."

Retz tried to keep his composure. Zek was doing one of the many things he hated. He was making up a new plan on the go. And while it was true you needed to do that with any good plan, Zek's always involved something incredibly dangerous and foolhardy. It wasn't that Zek's plans didn't work, it's just they weren't as elegant and for Retz they were always a headache. He just hoped everything else was going smoothly. They really needed to wrap this up before things got out of hand.

* * *

Chief laid down a wall of fire as his squad of Spartans spread out, drawing the attention of the lead Elite away from them. Said Elite used his plasma sword to block the incoming fire and, with his other hand, fired plasma bolts at the Spartan Leader. Chief ducked down just as his shields started taking hits, but he had bought his team time. The other Spartans were spread out along the length of the server room now, splitting the focus of the defenders. Unfortunately, their leader was still squarely focused on him.

He rolled out to fire on the Lead Elite again, but he once more block the Spartan's shots and continued shooting at him. Chief quickly got up and ran, strafing the Elite with fire before finally diving into cover. Not a single bullet managed to get through the alien's sword.

"Why do you always attract the crazy dangerous ones?" Cortana asked him.

"I don't," Chief assured her. "I pick them out for myself."

"That is not at all comforting," Cortana informed him. "And maybe just a tad egotistical."

Chief popped up again, firing a burst of shots at the Elite, this time going for the legs instead of the torso. The sword wasn't blocking the Elite's lower body, so this time the shot connected. The Elite stumbled backwards from the hit, but didn't fall. He bellowed at one of his fellow Elites, pointing his sword at the Master Chief. The subordinate alien followed the command and charged forward, a Plasma Sword of his own in hand. The Spartan held his ground though, firing at the alien continuously.

Before the charging Elite could take a swipe though, it took two shots straight to the brain. It's body tumbled onto the console Chief was using as cover while it's Plasma Sword fell out of his hand. Chief followed the smoke trail to Linda, still holding her sniper rifle.

"Sorry, Chief," Linda called over. "Guess he doesn't like to do his own dirty work!"

"It's alright," Chief assured her, grabbing the fallen plasma sword in his hand and activating it. "I can work with this."

The bait plan hadn't worked they way Chief had wanted. He had hoped the Lead Elite would charge him if he managed to get a good shot in. Then he'd come out of cover and leave himself open when he tried to take a swipe at the Spartan with his sword so Linda could shoot him. They had done this plenty of times before with Elites, using their headstrong stubborn streak against them. It hadn't exactly worked as he had planned this time, but it wasn't a total loss. With a plasma sword of his own, this playing field had just been evened out.

Vaulting over the console, Chief ran at the lead Elite with plasma sword out. The Covie fired back with his plasma rifle of course, but the Spartan used the alien's own trick against it. Plasma bolts bounced off of Spartan's newly acquired weapon, harmlessly deflected into the nearby walls. Then, once the Master Chief was close enough, he sliced at the plasma rifle with his sword. The weapon was slashed into two and the Elite tossed it away, barely able to raise his own sword to block Chief's next slash.

The Elite looked at the Spartan furiously before lashing out again with another strike. Chief blocked the blow and moved to the left, slashing downward this time. Once more, the Elite blocked the strike, but Chief's momentum forced him to back up. The Spartan then slashed to the alien's right, forcing it to stumble backwards before Chief delivered an upward slash. The Elite caught the attack though and pushed back hard on the Spartan's blade, almost forcing him into a kneel.

"Please tell me we're not going to play fair here," Cortana asked nervously.

"Nope," Chief replied. "Just getting him in position! Noble Two!"

Kat turned and pointed her robotic arm at the alien's back. A weapon attachment popped up from a compartment in the wrist and fired both of it's barrels. High impact shots with shredder round modifications, they knocked out the Elite's shields and then cut into his back. The Elite roared in pain and Chief used the opportunity to kick him in the solar plexus. The Covie was thrown back hitting a nearby terminal station. He roared loudly, flaring his mandibles in anger at the Spartan and shouting something in it's language.

"Probably saying something about you having no honor or whatever," Cortana snidely observed.

"Still winning," Chief responded. "It's all that matters in the end."

"Working with pirates might be rubbing off on you," Cortana said joked. "Also, movement at your rear."

Chief turned just in time to block some plasma bolts from another Elite. However, the Covie's barrage didn't last long as something fast and blue charged into him and then let off a shotgun blast into his head. Commander Shepard soon emerged out of the biotic aura and pointed behind Chief once more. The Lead Elite had recovered somewhat and charged at the Chief. But his movements were sluggish, still suffering from the damage Kat had inflicted on him. Chief rolled around the attempt to run him down and then lashed out with a slash across the Elite's back. The alien lurched backward, screaming briefly before collapsing dead to the floor. With the hostile dealt with, Chief looked to the Commander.

"Sorry we came in late," Shepard said, as Samara and Legion moved into the room. "That second group of Covenant outside weren't budging, but we held them off."

"Just glad you protected our rear flank, sir," Chief assured him.

There was a final string of shots from Jun's position followed by a thud as an Elite fell to the floor.

"Last one, we're clear," he called out.

"Good, Noble Two, get the data off the servers," Chief ordered. "We're running a little behind now and we need to extract as soon as possible."

"Legion, help her out," Shepard added, looking to the Geth. "Two hackers are better than one."

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander," Legion complied.

Both Legion and Kat began to break into the data server, the massive computing tower the entire room was apparently built around. Kat began slicing through firewalls while Legion attached itself to the server directly, infiltrating it's security from the ground up.

"We should have everything on their plasma coil operation soon," Kat assured them. "Weapon schematics, parts transportation, locations of other facilities, details on their assembly method. Could be a gold mine for the lab techs back home."

"If we give some of it to Mordin and Garrus I'm sure they'll come up with some upgrade ideas of their own," Shepard joked. "Speaking of, I better check on the others, see if they're wrapping up as well."

Shepard opened a channel to contact the other teams, hoping they were about done.

"Shepard to all squads, we are at our objective and downloading what we can as we speak," he informed them. "How are things on your end?"

" _We got just a few more bombs to put and we're done, Shepard,"_ Garrus reported. _"Don't worry about us."_

That was good to hear, however what came next was a bit disconcerting.

" _Shepard, it's Tali,"_ the quarian spoke tepidly. _"We're almost to the cargo ship, but there are... complications."_

"What do you mean complications?" Shepard asked, not hiding his concern.

Tali answered rather simply and thusly.

" _Zek has a plan."_

Shepard's immediate thought, spoken aloud, was just as direct.

"Oh crap."

* * *

Tali directed her combat drone against the grunt in red armor trying to hold his position. He took a clean blast of energy straight to his face, practically burning through his mask. Tali took him out with a follow-up shot from her pistol, dropping him with a headshot.

"Okay Chiktikka, new target," she said, inputing the position of the next Covie nearby.

The Elite turned to engage the little combat drone as it closed on him, firing at the purple ball excessively. He was distracted long enough for an overcharged plasma bolt to knock his shields out. He turned back to towards the Jackal who fired it, just in time for a plasma machete to get flung right into his torso. The Covie reeled back in pain as Zek rushed up and pulled the weapon back out.

"That's mine," he said, lifting his already charged plasma pistol to the Elite's face. "You can have this though."

The green bolt struck the Elite point blank in the face. As the burning corpse of the alien collapsed, Zek moved up, motioning Tali and Kasumi to follow. The two tried to keep up with the speedy pirate as he raced into the next room. He charged through the door, firing his plasma pistol at the Covenant inside. Kasumi tossed a flashbang in after him and the Pirate just managed to cover his eyes before it went off, blinding the assembled Covenant defenders. Tali sicked Chiktikka on the nearest Elite, blasting him with full power before the Covie could get his vision back. The quarian then discharged a shotgun blast into a nearby grunt as it stumbled about for direction, taking him out as well.

The area was finally clear when Zek's plasma machete cut down one last grunt. With the lack of enemies to concern themselves with, Tali was finally able to look around the room Zek had led them to. It appeared to be some kind of secondary docking bay, smaller than the one used for the cargo ship. It was vacant for the moment though, nothing attached to the airlock. This begged the obvious question, to which Tali asked.

"Why are we here?"

"We keep trying to push to the main airlock and we're not going to get anywhere in time, Covenant are too entrenched," Zek explained. "We're not getting aboard it the old fashioned way, so we need go the other route. Your suits are still sealed right?"

Tali was instantly incensed. Was he seriously suggesting what she thought he was?

"You want us to board the cargo ship from the outside?" Tali asked, angrily trying to clarify his intent. "In space? You want us to open the airlock and jump down onto the hull and assault the ship from the outside?"

"Long and short of it, yeah," Zek replied nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal. "I just need you two to hack the airlock here. It's on lockdown by now, security measure. No big deal for you two though."

"As fun as a spacewalk sounds, Zek, this seems crazy," Kasumi informed him. "Forget the fact we'd be assaulting a ship in vacuum, there's only three of us."

"I need most of my men downstairs still pretending we're trying to bust through their defenses there," Zek said rather simply. "But we won't be alone, I've already put in a call for Varvok to help us out. They can fly their Phantoms right over the ship and drop down. At the moment, they're not expecting us trying this, so we can surprise their little engineering crews before they even know what we're doing."

Of course they wouldn't suspect they'd do this, Tali thought, because it was insane. No one would try to attack a ship from the outside on foot. Maybe Spartans, but not people like her and Kasumi.

"How is this even going to work?" Tali asked, a twinge of sarcasm in her voice. "We're on top of the ship, then what? We knock on the airlock door and ask to be let in?"

"In a manner of speaking," Zek said grinning. "Varvok has some leftover explosives. I know just where to put them. Now come on, we're wasting time. They're probably halfway through cutting those docking restraints by now."

Tali still hated this, but it was Zek's Op. Miranda probably would've offered more resistance, but she just wanted to wrap this up before things got even more complicated. So she moved over to the airlock and began hacking the lock.

"Better recheck your seals, Kas," she warned her friend.

"Seriously? We're doing it?" Kasumi asked, sounding both astonished and excited a she moved to help her with the door. "Awesome!"

"Not the word I would use, but yeah, we're going outside," Tali admitted. "I just hope you know what you're doing Zek."

"Not entirely, but that's never stopped me before," the Pirate replied jovially, already checking the seals on his helmet. "When you are ready, Ms. Zorah."

It didn't take long for Tali to bypass the lockdown function, especially with Kasumi helping to pick up the slack. Once they were inside though, there was a slight complication.

"I can't get the airlock to cycle normally, it's pretty much just going bust clean open," she warned. "I'd suggest hanging onto something unless you want the escaping air to send you rocketing into space with no means of stopping your forward momentum."

"Sounds like a rush," Kasumi said, wrapping her arm around a railing ear the door. "Do it."

Zek had already grabbed onto an adjacent railing near Tali's leg, so they were good to go. Tali activated the pad and both inner and outer airlock doors flung open. Air rushed screaming out of the room, pulling anything that wasn't bolted down right out along with it. The bodies of Covenant soldiers were sent flying out into the black as Tali held onto dear life alongside her compatriots.

Eventually the air had all leaked out and the three were able to leave under their own power instead of being sucked out into the void itself. Tali briefly floated out the other side of the airlock to see the glorious inky black of space beyond. While the asteroids hovering around her plane of vision were eye-catching, her gaze eventually fell onto the cargo ship below.

It was about the half the size of maybe a Migrant Fleet Envoy ship in length, big but certainly not daunting like most of the Covenant vessels they had encountered. In addition to around six external compartments on it's sides, it was also a bit more rotund in shape. Probably to fit more crates within. It didn't take her long to spot the engineering team working on the docking clamps, still cutting their way through.

"Why don't they get Engineers to fix it," Kasumi asked, her voice cracking over close-range comms as she floated beside Tali. "Huragok I mean."

"As if the Covenant will just hand them out to anyone who asks," Zek informed her. "No, if the average working stiffs want to do something, they gotta do it themselves. Or get unggoy to do it for them."

Tali had her visor scan the deck of the ship and it quickly picked up other lifeforms near the docking clamps.

"They had a security detail, Elites most likely," she cautioned.

"They're more there to keep the unggoy doing their job than protecting them," Zek assured her. "Let's float in close enough to make them out before we engage."

The three of them pushed themselves off the side of the airlock and towards the ship proper. No one seemed to notice them. Just as Zek had claimed, they weren't expecting someone trying this. It wasn't long before they got close enough to just touch the hull.

Once properly aligned, Tali activated her's boots' magnetization field, allowing her to walk on the hull without floating away. No sooner had she done that though, was their element of surprise blown. One of the Elites spotted the trio making their landing and pointed his weapon as he called to the attention of his fellows. Tali launched herself over to piece of cover along the ship's superstructure as plasma bolts flew at her. Zek was quick to respond though, his needler already out and at the ready. He fired three clean shots into the Elite's head and let the explosive shards do the rest.

As that Elite vanished in a puff of pink, a second Elite launched himself into the black with a hover pack he was wearing. He rained down plasma fire on the trio, but they fired back at him. Kasumi trailed a line of shots at the Covie, managing to hit one of his booster packs, igniting it. A brief explosion sent the Elite hurtling away into the wall of the main facility.

Tali in the meantime targeted another Elite who had taken flight and was currently strafing her position. With Geth Shotgun in hand, she charged the weapon and took careful aim at the Covie. The alien, however, nimbly dodged the powerful shot as it traveled at him. Clearly, even with the increased range, the gun's fire was just too slow to catch a capable Covenant soldiers. So instead she decided to use that advantage against him.

She activated her sabotage function on her omni-tool hitting the Covie with it. The next time the Elite fired, a terrible searing overcharge caused his twin plasma rifles to explode in his face. The discharge was enough to disorient the Covie, sending him tumbling back towards the ship. That was when Tali aimed her Shotgun again, charged it and let loose another shot. This time, it connected and ended the Elite for good.

At this point the engineering crew had stopped their attempts to cut the ship free. They fired on the trio of boarders desperately, plasma and needle rounds flying in every direction. Kasumi let loose with her submachine gun as she flung herself into cover. Zek just popped his shield out instead and returned fire with his own plasma pistol.

"I hate it when they remember they actually have spines," Zek grumbled, firing a clean shot into one grunt.

The weren't the only problem though, more Elites soon started charging in on their section. Tali activated Chiktikka again to slow them down, but it looked like they were about to sandwhiched. But as Chiktikka fell before an onslaught of plasma bolts, suddenly the Elite positions lit up with purple fire. From on high, a Phantom dropship strafed the enemy. Dropping down from it's belly appeared a squad of batarians, taking the Elites completely by surprise. The grunts didn't last much longer either, as the Phantom quickly turned it's guns on them.

"Told ya Varvok would be here," Zek said smugly.

Varvok was indeed there, motioning his men to secure the surrounding area while he made a run for Zek. Garrus was with him, a welcome sight for Tali. It was good to know he had come to help her out on this crazy plan. Although she kind of regret he had when he opened his mouth.

"You seriously went along with this?" He asked her bluntly.

"He didn't really leave much room for discussion," Tali explained.

"It's working, isn't it?" Zek interrupted, sounding a bit annoyed at their continued criticism. He then turned to Varvok. "You got those charges?"

"Yes, where do we plant them?" Varvok asked frantically. "Airlock?"

"Nah," the Pirate said smiling sinisterly "I got a more immediate solution in mind."

While the bulk of the batarians distracted the remaining security on the hull, Zek led everyone else towards the front of the ship. Most of the major big Covenant ships kept their bridges near the back of the vessel. That was primarily for military ships though and, again, only the really big ones. A cargo ship had it's bridge at the front, much like a Corvette. And just like a Corvette it also had a window into space. Zek was already arming the explosive when they got near said window and Tali was quick to predict what he was about to do before he even did it. He leaned over, waved at what she presumed were some of the bridge hands and then slapped the charge on the window before rushing back.

"Get ready to move!" He shouted. "We got less than a minute!"

Second later, the bomb exploded and the air within the bridge began to get sucked right out of the ship. Elites went flying out of the ship, their screams unheard in the vacuum of space. Before it was even over though, Zek made the others follow him to the hole he just made. They forced their way inside the hole, just as the last bits of air began to be sucked clean out. The whole team made it inside just as large shutters closed across the windows.

"Ha! Made it!" Zek shouted with glee. "The bridge's atmo should recycle soon. In the meantime, Ms. Zorah, Ms. Goto, I need you to disengage the cargo compartments. Only way we're getting this haul out of here in time."

"We're on it," Kasumi stated.

Tali activated her omni-tool and wirelessly connected it to the ship's grid. While she was good at hacking though, she didn't want to waste time trying to guess what button did what. They didn't have the time. She decided it was probably a good idea to use her trump card for the situation. She activated DOT, who was still plugged into her suit's systems.

"How may I be of assistance?" She asked.

"Can you locate the cargo compartment ejection protocols, DOT?" She asked. "We need to get them detached so the _Serpent_ can pick it up."

"Of course, one moment."

As DOT began to search, there was a sudden rumbling that shook the ship. For a brief second they thought it was an enemy attack, but Varvok assured them otherwise.

"That should be the asteroid mine exploding," he said.

Moments later, someone confirmed it on the main comm channel.

" _Shepard to all teams, we are away from the main facility with data in tow,"_ the Commander reported. _"We just got a front row seat to the asteroid going boom. Good work down there people."_

That was when DOT located the ejection controls for Tali. She quickly went through the process of pulling switches and activating commands. She pressed the final button on the holographic display and the ship shook once more.

"Cargo away," Tali reported. "Get your ship in to tow it away, Zek."

"Excellent, once that's done, and everyone's evacuated back to the fleet, we can bombard what's left of the facility and make a clean getaway," the Jackal declared. "All in all, a successful job, people. Drinks on me!"

Tali wasn't sure she'd take him up on that, but she had to admit he was right. There were bumps, complications, even a few insane moments. However, they had pulled it off more or less. It was something to be proud of. They had hurt the Covenant and for once, it didn't hurt to think they had actually done something as a unit. At least, Tali hoped that was the sentiment everyone was feeling.

* * *

Zek sat at his desk grinning widely at the image of Holland and Haverson looking back at him through the vidchat window. He looked his particularly smug self, but for once no one was berating him for it. A soft rock tune was playing in the background off of Boz's radio station. Zek was pouring a glass of ichor for himself as he spoke. In corner of the video display though, next to the humans' grim faces, was the more beautiful sight. The smoking remains of the Plasma Coil facility, crumbled to bits, just more debris in the asteroid field.

"A great day for everyone, gentlemen," Zek declared, holding his glass high. "The Covenant's operation is scrap and we all got something out of it. A perfect heist if you will."

"I'd prefer to call it raid," Holland informed the Pirate bluntly. "The UNSC doesn't do heists."

"Well, I have no problem with that," Zek assured him. "We're Pirates, raiding is part of the job description. And might I say, you folks don't make bad buccaneers yourselves."

"I'm not sure if we appreciate the comparison," Haverson stated. "But we do appreciate your help in this matter. We managed to pull this off with minimal casualties and with an acceptable expenditure of resources. And if we can get the data we've obtained back to Earth, our scientists can start fast tracking our own plasma-related research with our cut of the materials we've collected."

Zek's smiled deepened and he started circling his hand about. Holland quickly guessed what it was for and simply sighed.

"You did us a good turn, Zek, thank you," the Colonel finally relented. "If any intelligence about other potential targets of opportunity cross your desk..."

"We'll be sure to share them, Colonel," Zek promised. "Now, I must go. My men expect me to make an appearance at our evening celebration. We also have more vids to watch."

"We won't keep you then," Haverson assured. "Enjoy yourself, Shipmaster."

That was when they disconnected and Zek got up off his chair. Drink still in hand he scampered over to Retz, a similar wicked smile across his own face.

"Looks like we got away with it, sir," Retz informed him.

"So the crate was there then?" Zek asked hopefully. "In the docked Cargo ship like they told you?"

"My contacts are ever reliable, sir," Retz replied, snapping his fingers as he spoke.

Two other kig-yar entered the room, lugging in a large crate into the quarters. They set it down by Zek's feet. Eagerly he opened it up and saw the beautiful sight inside. Several packets, full to the brim, with white crystal powder, sugar. Said packets also surrounded a small machine, known to Zek as an ionized chemical compound construction device.

"It seems my friends in the chemical constitution business are indeed good at what they do," Retz said as Zek reached into the crate. "Thanks to that half-eaten packet we analyzed, they were able to copy the exact chemical composition of the sugar. Creating a perfect synthetic duplicate. Although not nearly as pure or as potent as the real thing, it will be more than adequate for our needs at the moment."

"We need to start testing recipes with this stuff as soon as possible," Zek stated as he held a packet in his hand. "We can get some clients started on the fake stuff for cheap, then jack up the price once we have the real deal."

"A wise business strategy, sir, but it does hinge us finding real sugar," Retz cautioned. "It's not going to be easy doing that. The humans aren't just going to hand over locations of possible human colonies growing the stuff to us. Especially if we tell them we're using it to essentially jump start a sugar smuggling venture."

"Yes, the UNSC probably isn't in the business of selling narcotics anymore than heists," Zek said, laughing only slightly at that. "We just need to find a way around that, a map if you will. But we can't hack their computers, that Cortana AI is a clever one. We'd never get one by her, not after the Carrier. We'll need to find another way. In the meantime, we practice on the synthetic crop and we do it quietly."

"I don't think they'll really care that much in the end," Retz told him plainly. "We can use the extra credits to buy them and ourselves better weapons. As well as secure more intelligence concerning the Covenant for them. Will they really care that much about use essentially drug money to get all that?"

"Holland and Haverson are men of principle, Retz," Zek reminded him. "I'd rather be safe than sorry. I suppose I could've told them the truth about this, but to be honest, I didn't want the hassle. We may have to share mission critical stuff, but this is an internal matter. They don't need to know about it."

"I agree, Zek," Retz concurred. "But let's hope this doesn't come back to bite us eventually. We've gained a lot of good faith today, I'd hate to see it flushed down the drain."

Zek ripped the pack open a bit and dipped his finger in the sugar. He then started stirring it into his ichor.

"Relax, Retz," he said jovially. "We're riding high on this win. Between this, our potential market on the vids and Taq's little treasure map, we're back on the way to the top. Shepard, Holland and the others will appreciate that in time. After all, we did this together, didn't we?"

"Yes, a real team effort, sir," Retz added grinning.

Zek raised his glass high at that.

"To the UNSC and the _Normandy_ , the greatest friends a pirate could ask for," Zek declared. "Fellow brigands, whether they like it or not, whether they know it or not."

Zek took back a long gulp, which was followed by a sudden tingle up his spine.

"Oh that's good stuff, even for a synthetic copy," he said happily.

* * *

Taq tapped her satchel where her little data pyramid was hidden. She didn't want to risk leaving it alone anywhere. For one she didn't trust Zek's crew. For another, she just didn't trust Zek. Hell, she didn't exactly trust the humans either, but they were mostly a non-issue. It was better to keep her meal ticket on her. She did not want to risk someone else acquiring and ruining her big score.

She intended to do some more study on it in her quarters. No sense in going to the wreck unprepared. Maybe she'd find something she overlooked, possible defenses, counter-measures, protocols concerning a crash. Anything that could help navigate the place really, she had never been on a Forerunner wreck before so for all she knew it was loaded with traps.

As she entered her cabin aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ she was initially relieved to be back some place she could relax for a brief moment. So long as Zek didn't try to knock on her door asking for a date or whatever. That feeling suddenly started to shift though, her thoughts swimming with anxiety. So many years in the field had honed her senses, made her hyper aware of danger. Right now, she was getting a bad feeling.

She moved for her plasma pistol, just as she saw shadow in the corner of her eye. Then she looked to see a grenade flying right at her. She only had seconds to move, she made a desperate scramble to put something between her and bomb. Then came the deafening sound of an explosion and bright flash of flame.

* * *

AN: Uh oh, looks like we got trouble aboard the Serpent, and not the usual kind. If you want to know what's up with that, best stay tuned for more dear readers. Same Halo Time, same Mass Effect channel. Anyway, apologies for the delay, it's been a bit of a month. Please do review and check out the profile for a link to this chapter's behind the scenes blogpost. See you guys again soon and thanks for your continued support!


	9. Stowaways

**Chapter Eight: Stowaways**

 _You can go a long way with a Smile. You can go a lot further with a Smile and a Gun_

 _-Al Capone_

"That's when I knew I would never have come back from Florida alive."

Zek laughed a little at that as he took his drink in hand.

"Yeah, now you get it," he said putting the glass to his beak. "Took you only most of your natural life, but you finally got it."

He took a brief sip from the glass with most satisfaction.

"Damn, this is the greatest cautionary story ever told," he declared. "Mothers should read it to their kids at night."

"Even the part where they kill the guy in the diner over a bunch of dumb jokes?" Kasumi asked, still holding her bowl of popcorn.

"Especially that," Zek insisted. "It's the whole damn crux. It shows the reality of the situation, they are fooling themselves."

Kasumi had once again decided to join the Pirates for another seemingly long night of old vids in their rec room. She wondered if they were still stuck on Japanese Tokusatsu, but it turned out the day's bounty had given them a different mood, gangster films. Scarface was the first, now they had Goodfellas and Zek seemed to like them equally. Honestly, she wasn't sure why. She thought Zek would be rooting for the bad guys to win in this one, but instead he seemed to revel in their downfall. That's when she latched onto that word he had used before.

"What do you mean by 'cautionary' anyway?" She asked him digging into her popcorn a bit.

"Exactly what I mean, it's a lesson in what not to do," Zek elaborated. "Specifically why we're pirates, and helps demonstrate one of the most important rules of the Pirate Game."

"Which is?" Kasumi asked again, even more intrigued.

"Never lie to yourself," he explained. "Embrace what you are, never act like you aren't a hoodlum or a rogue. Be proud of it, do not hide, do not pretend to have honor. You are a scoundrel, pure and simple."

Zek looked back to the holoscreen directly and pointed at the lead character on screen, currently talking to an FBI agent about entering wittness protection.

"Look at Mr. Hill for example, a child who never grew up," he declared. "Who never accepted the harsh truth about his life until it was too late. The concept of your Mafia is cute, adorable even, but it's self-defeating. Pretending you are somehow legitimate businessmen, pillars of the community, is denying the fact you're anything but. It's false protection, a smokescreen that barely does anything but obscure you for a bit."

"It seemed to work for a long time," Kasumi noted. "They could do whatever they wanted and get away with it almost daily."

"Fantasy, fleeting fantasy," Zek informed her nonchalantly. "You heard Hill himself, your so called friends come to kill you with smiles. They pretend they're family, but they're not. They have no real loyalty to anything but their own skins, yet they act like they stand for something. They don't though, they're criminals. By definition we stand for only ourselves. Trust is fleeting within the Mafia system, family is a lie. You know why?"

Kasumi shook her head, but it was most out of eagerness to hear his answer.

"Because they live in a society with laws and restrictions and rules," Zek listed off rather plainly. "They try to fit into that system, to play it, game it, and they will succeed for a while. But to do so they make up their own laws to hide and protect themselves from another set of laws they willingly break. Inevitably, someone makes a mistake, someone does something they're not supposed to and it gets them in real trouble. They can't help themselves! You spend all this time breaking other people's laws, what makes you think yours are any more binding? And when one gets wise to the fact they're at the end of their rope, with nowhere else to turn, what do they do?"

Zek waved his hand back at the screen, already showing Henry Hill jumping off the witness stand to a frozen courtroom. He was lamenting his shattered life, his demolished dream of a gangster, his whole world crashing down in an instant because of one stupid decision.

"Everyone had their hands out, everything was for the taking," he said, depression and loss in his voice. "And now it's all over."

"They become what they hated and destroy all they once so valued," Zek concluded. "Crime cannot be organized. Crime cannot be legitimized. It is an oxymoron. Pirates accept the grim reality that we are outlaws and we are freer for it, Ms. Goto. Freer than Henry Hill is in his little podunk house in the middle of nowhere. Piracy is freedom, accepting no law, but the code you follow for yourself and your crew."

"But you have to have some rules," Kasumi said. "At least, some idea of what to not do."

"You live and die by your own merits, the code is a guideline but never binding," Zek assured. "A Kig-yar Pirate's loyalty and trust is not based on some blood oath or honor. It's based on practicality and respect. A crew needs a strong shipmaster to guide them, lead them to glory. A shipmaster needs a crew to achieve his ends. Both must respect the other by the simple fact they will crumble if they don't. And if a pirate neglects his duty for his own greed, all well and good. But fair is fair and he will be dealt with if he is not careful. We let the tide itself decide our fates, if you will. Not some shadowy board of bosses making up rules to protect themselves."

It was as Miranda had kept arguing, Jackal society was mob rule. No laws but those you make your own, only a small semblance of order based on what made sense practically. It wasn't a free for all, but it was a lot less restricting on the individual. She had gotten a taste of it when she was on the Hollow. Now, Zek was outling the philosophy in full. She'd be lying if she said she didn't see the appeal. After all, that was kind of how she lived her life, right? Carefree? No respect for the law? Sure she wasn't as violent as Zek's people, but she had to admit their lifestyles weren't all that different.

As the credits to the film started to play, rock music echoing through the rec room, Zek was already looking for another vid to roll. Kasumi had another look around the room. They were notably missing someone.

"Retz missed the whole vid," she said. "Hope he's not upset we watched it all without him."

"I think he watched it earlier," Zek assured her. "Said something about it being a little nostalgic. Probably because he and Hill both grew up on the streets. Retz was his own man though, didn't need to play valet to anyone. Unless he used it as a scam to steal some money, I can see him trying that."

"He mentioned a bit about that before," Kasumi recalled. "Said he had a fence at six or something."

"He's always been able to make some pretty good connections over his career," Zek noted. "That silver-tongue of his is most handy. I probably wouldn't be half the pirate I were today if it weren't for him."

He leaned over into Kasumi's ear at that.

"Don't tell him I said that by the way," he cautioned. "He's already got a bit of an ego about him, don't want to add to it."

"No problem," Kasumi assured. "So, you decided on a vid yet?"

Zek started scratching his head a bit at the question.

"Not sure," he admitted. "I'm at a loss between this 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Blood and Death on Illium', they both sound interesting."

The choice would never be made. A loud terrible sound rocked the ship, like a small explosion of some sort. Zek and the rest of the assembled crew looked about confused for a moment. The Pirate Leader eventually clicked his comm-link on.

"The hell was that?" He demanded.

"Sir, there's been an explosion in the crew quarters," shouted a voice over the line. "You better get up here. It was in Taq's room!"

Zek instantly lept to his feet and ran for the door. Kasumi placed her popcorn aside and followed him. She had never seen him, or any of the Jackal Pirates for that matter, this flustered and frantic. Keeping up with him as he rushed through the corridors was almost a chore in itself. Eventually they stopped outside a small doorway, singed and partially damaged. There were some armed guards at the scene already, looking over everything. The smoking smell of explosive residue still filled the air. When they got inside the room, they saw a small crater in the floor with burn marks all around it. That was when they heard coughing behind a piece of furniture. Zek rushed to it and found Taq, shaken but alive and not worse for wear, holding onto a plasma pistol in her hand nervously.

"You alright?" He asked her, sounding legitimately concerned for once.

"I'm fine," Taq assured him. "Better than him anyway."

She pointed her gun past her cover over to a small counter top. Lying against it was a dead Jackal, his beak hung open and plasma scoring across his torso and head. Zek scowled at the corpse as he tried to lift Taq up, but the female Jackal simply forced his hands away and stood under her own power. Kasumi stood beside him, taking the whole scene in.

"Looks like you have a problem, Zek," Kasumi cautioned.

"Vid night is over sadly," the pirate declared, looking to his men. "Lock the ship down, no kig-yar gets off. Inform Haverson and Shepard at once and find Retz! No one enters this room until they arrive and we start getting answers!"

Now Kasumi was concerned. Zek was acting serious for once. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. She supposed she couldn't blame him. The Ex he was still in love with had just been attacked, possibly by a member of his own crew. And it was obvious why he needed to get Shepard and Haverson involved. After all, they warned him this might happen.

All Kasumi knew at the time though was that this average night had suddenly gotten a lot more interesting.

* * *

"Don't want to say I told you so, Zek," Haverson stated. "So I won't. I'd like to think I'm better than that."

"Act smart all ya want, Lieutenant," Zek growled back. "It's not exactly helping anyone but your own self-satisfaction."

"Let's not get into another argument here," Shepard was quick to interject. "Right now, we need to know what we're dealing with."

It hadn't taken long for everyone to more or less arrive at the scene, save for Retz who was still nowhere to be found. Shepard had brought Garrus along with him to the scene, hoping his experience with similar instances in C-SEC could help with this case. Currently sitting down in a chair was Taq, still shaken from the ordeal and be comforted by Kasumi.

"Let's start from the top," Garrus began, speaking to the female Jackal. "You come in the room and then someone tosses a grenade at you."

"Right, so I ran to cover as fast I could," Taq reiterated. "Then the dead idiot over there started scanning the room for me. I caught him with a plasma bolt when he wasn't looking and just unloaded a second one into him to be sure. Then I stay here just trying to breathe and reconcile the fact someone had just tried to kill me in my own room."

"So who is our assailant then?" Haverson asked, directing his gaze to Zek in particular.

The Pirate leader walked over to the body and looked him over.

"He's probably one of the fresher faces we recruited," Zek admitted. "I'm familiar with most of my old crew, I don't recognize him. Even with half the face charred, he doesn't look like anyone I know."

"How'd he get through Retz' screening process?" Garrus asked. "He said it was airtight."

"Well he could've snuck aboard I guess," Zek supposed. "I mean, it was pretty hairy during our escape from the Hollow. After that he could've just blended in."

"Then it's safe to say this is one of your friend Snarlbeak's men," Haverson suggested. "He was probably trying to kill Taq and take her data module back to him."

"A fair analysis, but no."

Everyone turned to see Retz standing in the doorway, he walked in rather casually examining the scene carefully. He knelt down next to the scorched floor where the grenade had gone off.

"If this were Snarlbeak he would've instructed his men to take Taq alive if possible," he explained, scrapping his talon against the blackened floor. "He would need her expertise to get his prize, or at the very least he'd want to watch her die for betraying him. No offense meant, Taq."

"None taken," she replied.

"Also, a simple Snarlbeak stowaway wouldn't have waited this long to strike and he wouldn't have used a human grenade," Retz continued. "I can smell the powder and burning smoke smell. This is far more potentially problematic."

"What do you mean?" Kasumi asked curiously.

"I theorize that our would-be killer over there had other goals in mind," Retz replied, pointing to the corpse. "He wanted to cover his tracks. The plan was to kill Taq, steal the module and make a run for it. The idea of using the human frag grenade was to suggest the UNSC was actually involved. Then we'd spend a few hours accusing each other, trying to find the man responsible, giving the culprit ample time to get away with his prize. Zhoc is clever, but this requires way too much subterfuge to pull off. It's too complicated for him, he'd just go directly for the module. Hell, he'd be more likely to send a pickpocket to try and steal it off her person without her knowing. This assassin though, he wanted to make a statement with his kill. That's why he used a grenade, more flashy, garners more attention."

The theory earned raised eyebrows and perplexed looks from everyone save Zek and Taq. It was as if they were in on the conclusion Retz was making before anyone else. That was a scary thought, especially given their concerned expressions.

"So they wanted to make a spectacle of the kill, send a message," Shepard reasoned. "Who would go through all that trouble? What message are they sending?"

"Never cross the Syndicate," Retz answered thusly.

Zek grumbled worriedly in his throat while Taq looked downcast.

"Oh this is just perfect then," she groaned.

Everyone else, however, was just more confused. The word really meant nothing to them after all.

"What's the Syndicate?" Shepard asked for those out of the loop.

"The closest to thing to any real authority a Kig-yar pirate actually respects," Retz explained gravely. "It's a confederation of the three biggest pirate clans, led by each clan's ruling Pirate Queen. They are the dominant criminal enterprise in the galaxy and, more or less, run the proverbial show."

"I thought the Kig-Yar weren't big on organization and governments," Kasumi said, still a bit confused.

"We aren't, but we are not without some structure," Retz clarified. "They don't exactly make laws, they don't tell the smaller clans and fleets what to do, no one is actually beholden to them outside their own fleets. They do, however, represent an important part of Pirate society. They help settle disputes among other Pirates, money, territory, the usual, in an effort to prevent them from killing each other. You go to them when you want to ask for favors and you're so desperate that you don't care what their price is. And, more often than not, they insure that no one threatens to bring undue exposure onto Pirate Society."

Kasumi was entirely convinced about this.

"It sounds like a government body when you put it like that," Kasumi told him.

"Then I'm explaining it wrong," Retz corrected himself. "They don't actually govern anyone, they exist to protect Pirate Culture more or less and they do so at their own discretion. They banded together centuries ago when they realized the simple truth that the Covenant were putting the squeeze on kig-yar pirates. Rather than expend resources in a pointless costly war between each other, the Clans decided they'd be better off pooling resources and using the collective partnership to protect themselves and other pirates from falling prey to the Covenant's relentless march."

"Well how does killing other pirates or sneaking aboard their ships play into that?" Garrus asked. "If their mission is to preserve piracy, why attack their brethren?"

"Because when everyone plays by their own rules, the potential risks increase," Retz explained bluntly. "Pirates who take too much heat, who threaten Syndicate operations, who get into territory squabbles too often, garner too much attention by Covenant task forces or who are a little too chummy with the Covenant in general. They exist to remove those cancers before they spread and bring other pirates down with their reckless behavior. Everyone is free to act on their own code, but when you start making a nuisance of yourself, you shouldn't be surprised when others deem you a liability to their security."

So Pirate Court, Kasumi thought to herself. As strict and uncompromising as any other, but with no set laws, no jury, just a bunch of old lady birds apparently deciding if you endangered Pirate culture or not. And, knowing the Jackals like she did, their ultimate verdict came down to whether or not you endangered them more than anything or anyone else.

"Alright, how do they traditionally work then?" Shepard asked. "What's an average day on the job for them?"

"Say a pirate comes to them with a problem," Retz began, speaking succinct and clear. "A rival is pushing into his territory too much, ripping off his marks, stealing his jobs. So he asks the Syndicate to do something about it. They consider it, for a price of course, usually pretty high. You only go to them if you have no other option. They don't like interfering with others if they get nothing out of it. Inversely, you might have a pirate who has gotten too big for his own good. He's hitting the Covenant military too often, he's selling out his rivals to the Covenant to take them out of the game, he could even be targeting the Syndicate directly. Well, now they have to deal with him. You can't have a task force chasing down pirates or said pirate giving the Covenant information on Syndicate operations. He needs to be dealt with. Not every solution requires outright murder, but it's sometimes deemed the easiest response. Others could include the sabotage of key ships, reprisals against the offender's operations, maybe they turn the crew against him and maroon him on a planet. The motivating factor behind any action is the same though, send a message."

"Mess with our status quo and you pay the price," Garrus concluded. "Okay, how do they go about doing all this? Where do they get their information? How do these covert operations they conduct work?"

"Well, usually they already have operatives in the field," Retz said rather plainly. "People implanted into other fleets, sometimes for years, sometimes only recently recruited by the shipmaster himself. They sit, they wait, report back what they find all the while and execute operations when told to. Those undercover for years are usually there because the Pirate they're implanted with is of particular interest to them. A potential threat they wish to keep an eye on, activated only when need be. It's the ones who get deployed at a moment's notice who are a more immediate threat. They're not there to observe, only to act."

Haverson had crossed his arms during Retz's explanation and was now offering a skeptical look in response.

"Pirate spies?" He said, somewhat in the form of a question. "You're telling me there is such a thing as Pirates who double as spies."

Retz just offered an innocent acknowledging shrug. It said to Haverson, and everyone else for that matter, that they were free to think of it that way. Kasumi liked that herself. Secret Agent Pirates, two great tastes together. It made her imagination fire off rockets a bit, well-dressed swashbuckling badasses wearing eye-patches and tuxedos, sailing on boats armed with all kinds of tricked out gadgets. Perhaps she had been watching too many old vids, but she couldn't help but wonder.

"I'm also getting the feeling you're telling us that our dead friend over there isn't our only problem," Shepard reasoned aloud. "That there are probably a lot more of them aboard this ship."

"It all depends on how important the operation is deemed, but usually there is more than one," Retz answered plainly. "They're about the strength of a squad, about eight people. Any more and you start to attract attention. I can't say for sure if we have that many, but it's a possibility. And it's more than likely they are all after Taq and her data module."

"Great, as if one asshole vying for my head wasn't enough," Taq growled.

"I'm guessing they want what Snarlbeak does," Garrus presumed. "They want that Forerunner Artifact."

"Or they want to insure no one can acquire it," Retz postulated. "Maintaining the status quo of their power is important to the Syndicate. They'd rather no one Pirate obtain an edge over them, so destroying the information is just as viable a resort of action. It could be another reason why the assassin chose a grenade for this attempt. If the module was somehow damaged in the blast the mission would still be a success. This one acted in haste though and it's cost his fellows the element of surprise. We can use that to our advantage to hunt them down."

Hunting down Pirate Spies, Kasumi honestly did not think this was how the night would go. Not that it wasn't a bad situation, but she couldn't help but feel excited over the prospect. It was like a mystery novel, a veritable cast of characters to investigate and track down. It was her kind of danger, more intrigue, less of the burning cities and killer monsters that she had nearly gotten used to.

"We'll help keep your ship on lockdown while you weed out these stowaways," Haverson offered. "We should also take Taq into some kind of protective custody off the _Serpent_. If she is a target, we can't risk her or the data module falling into this Syndicate's hands."

"I appreciate the offer of help, Haverson," Retz stated cautiously. "But the fact of the matter is that these spies are but one piece of a larger problem."

Haverson looked at the feathery pirate curiously, not looking all too pleased by the potential insinuation.

"Please elaborate," he asked, sounding a little peeved.

"Well, I imagine you have protocols, Lieutenant," Retz shrugged simply. "I don't think you just leave grenades lying around out in the open for anyone to take. You have them secured, same as us. We don't lock-up frag grenades, so it had to come from your armory and the only people with access-"

"Are you suggesting one of our people could be involved?" Haverson asked, now sounding incensed.

"I'm suggesting that, unless some random Marine has reported they're missing a grenade or two, you should probably see if your armory is missing a few frags," Retz informed him succinctly. "And if possible, you should find out who took them."

Like any good mystery there was a twist, a possible traitor within UNSC ranks, assisting assassins in some way. Haverson looked livid and Kasumi swore he was about to pop a blood vessel. Then suddenly, he calmed, taking a short breath.

"I suppose you have a point, Retz," he relented. "The frag grenade had to come from somewhere. We should conduct an inventory inspection. Discreetly, however. I don't want to risk any of the men thinking we're hunting down a potential traitor on behalf of the Jackals."

"Well if we're going to do this, I suggest a two prong investigation," Zek declared. "Just so it can be fair and impartial on all parties involved. Retz should of course lead the _Serpent's_ efforts."

"A good idea," Shepard concurred, turning next to his turian companion. "Garrus, I want you investigating this as well. You have experience with this after all."

"No problem, Shepard," Garrus nodded. "However, I think I should bring some backup on this. Samara is an accomplished investigator in her own right. It's part of her job description. She could be of some service."

"So long as everyone reports back to me and Holland their findings, I'm more than happy to agree to this," Haverson assured. "I'd like to have this matter resolved quickly, before rumors start circulating. We don't want more trouble than needed. Speaking of, I need to inform the Colonel about this. He is going to flip of course, but we need to prepare in case any of our people are in fact involved. Good day, gentlemen."

As Haverson left, Kasumi jumped up from her spot beside Taq. She headed right for Shepard. If they were hunting down Pirate Spies, she wanted in on the action. And she knew just how to convince the Commander.

"Shep, I've spent a good amount of time with these pirates, they kind of trust me," she explained. "I can help out Retz in uncovering these Syndicate guys. I mean, I know how the criminal mind works better than most. That's part MY job description."

"You sure about this, Kasumi?" Shepard asked

"Yeah, these Syndicate guys sound like shifty customers," Garrus added. "Plus, you'd be with him."

Garrus' head pointed to Retz, who responded with a raised brow.

"I can hear you," he informed the turian. "You are aware of that, correct?"

"Garrus, relax," Kasumi said, exhaling a slightly annoyed sigh. "Retz is on our side. He might not be squeaky clean, but none of us really are. I feel completely safe with him, honest."

Shepard eventually offered a reluctant nod.

"Alright, Kasumi, I suppose it would be a good idea to have someone else's eyes on how Retz handles things. You know, just so the report is... factual."

"Still can hear you," Retz reminded him. "Also, that term is so binding. Everyone slightly embellishes, makes the report that much more interesting a story."

Shepard and Garrus glared at him, but just shrugged in capitulation.

"Watch yourself, Goto," Garrus warned in a whisper.

"I'll be fine," she insisted again. "Honestly, you guys worry way too much. I've handled way shiftier people than him."

Shepard and Garrus just gave her an accepting look and walked away. Kasumi was now left with Retz, Zek and Taq alone in the room.

"So," she said, clapping her hands together and looking at Retz. "Where do we start, partner?"

Retz walked over to the dead assassin and started rifling through his pockets. He came up empty and shook his head.

"We need to check where he was sleeping," he deduced. "He was here at least a day, he had to get some shut-eye at some point. I'll run a facial recognition scan, pinpoint his bunk on the security systems."

He then turned to Taq, still sitting in her chair.

"Taq, it would probably be best to stick with us," he told her. "Until we're certain no humans are involved, you're not safe out of our sight."

"Fine," Taq groaned. "This whole hit-list thing is going to seriously put a damper on all my research time, you know. Let's wrap it up fast."

Retz then turned to Zek, the Pirate Leader offering a very serious, pleading look.

"Take care of her, man," he requested. "And deal with this fast. I don't need these guys running around on my ship. It's only going to make things more awkward with the UNSC until it's done."

"Don't worry, Zek," Retz said, curling his fingers into a fist. "I know how these guys think. They won't last a day, promise."

* * *

True to Retz's word, the security systems found the name of their grenade chucking assassin. His name was Joc, although Kasumi probably wondered if that was his real name. Whether or not it was an alias, he had been assigned lodging after being recruited. It didn't take long to discover his bunk in the main sleeping quarters of the _Serpent_. They found his empty bed, unkempt after a brief stay in it. He had gotten up in a hurry no doubt.

"I'm looking at the place where my attempted killer was sleeping probably just an hour ago," Taq said nervously. "This is kind of weird."

"Just stay close, watch yourselves," Retz warned. "His colleagues could be watching us right now. We need to search the area. It might have some kind of clue."

Retz had started looking through the bed, searching for something hidden in the mattress while Kasumi and Taq scanned the surrounding area. There were some compartments above the bunk, a good hiding spot potentially. When Kasumi opened them though, she found nothing. Currently, the song "Living after Midnight" was playing over the intercom. Not nearly that loud, but still blasting. Boz the Buzzard did not know how to sleep apparently. In any case, her mind wasn't fully on finding clues. Something Retz had said was still nagging at her.

"What did you mean before when you said you know how these assassins think?" Kasumi asked him.

"To tell you the truth, it's because I've been expecting this," he explained. "Zek's lineage meant it was only a matter of time before someone in the Syndicate tried to install someone in his ship."

"Being related to Dread Feather is hardly enough to get him on their watch list," Taq argued, mocking the very idea of such a thing. "Why would they care enough to bother?"

"Maybe they don't, but I preferred to be prepared just in case," Retz responded. "The Syndicate only answers to themselves. If they believe you're a threat, that's more than enough reason to send an agent your way. To be honest, I've been looking forward to this a little, a chance to match my wits against them. My only regret being that their arrival has put Taq in danger. My deepest condolences, my dear."

"Eh, I suppose it's nice to be wanted," Taq said shrugging, somewhat self-deprecating. "Even if it means dead or alive by a number of parties."

Kasumi crossed her arms a little, frowning slightly as she did.

"You didn't really answer my question," Kasumi told him. "How do you know how they think? Why have you been preparing for them?"

"The answer is somewhat two-fold," Retz admitted, turning to look at the hooded thief directly. "Part of it is because I suppose I think a lot like them. They're professional liars, the best kind of hustlers out there. Only far more dangerous than me. Kig-yar have a reputation for being duplicitous and underhanded, but they exemplify it. I suppose I just want to hope I have a better handle on how they operate given my job. I've had to scheme and talk our way out of a few jams over the years. And as for the second, well, because we encountered a few over the years."

Kasumi's frown now turned to a look of intrigue. What exactly did he mean by that?

"I thought this was the first time agents have gotten aboard," she recalled.

"But not the first time I've run afoul of them, so to speak," Retz clarified. "Not every agent operation takes them to pirates ships. Every high profile brigand has a few side businesses. One particular master of a small flotilla had a casino he had set up on Eayn. Zek and I had planned a heist on it, this was before we were proper pirates, you see. Thanks to an inside source, we found a way into the vault. We recruited a small team and managed to pull off the job."

Kasumi's eyes flicked in excitement. A casino raid, those were always fun. While the regulars got off on wheels and slots, you pulled off a true gamble. All that security, all those credits, never an easy thing to pull off. She always wanted to hit a high profile joint on the Citadel, but never managed it sadly. Not a big enough crew.

"Must've been a hell of a take," she said congratulatory.

"It was," Retz admitted. "And then we got outside and two minutes later... the whole place blew up."

Well, that was not how Kasumi imagined something like this would go. Stealing the creds? Sure. Blowing the place up? The hell?

"It wasn't us of course, we got out with barely a problem," Retz explained. "The place wasn't entirely packed either, we had pulled the emergency alarm and escaped in the confusion. We didn't even pack explosives. It soon became clear what had happened. Our inside source was no doubt a Syndicate agent. Word on the street was that the Pirate who ran the casino had only managed to build the place thanks to a generous donation by the Syndicate. He had failed to keep up his interest loans though, so they decided to pull their investment it seems. I should've realized the truth of the matter, the tip was just too good, too detailed. Someone really wanted us to get in there. I probably would've suspected earlier, but I was younger, inexperienced. Not nearly as adept at finding the lies as I was at telling them."

"Why didn't this agent just do the job himself?" Kasumi asked.

"The Syndicate wanted to send a message, blowing the place up wouldn't have been enough," Retz elaborated, sounding a little giddy at the recounting. "They wanted him cleaned out, their share of what was owed returned and the Pirate humiliated for going back on his deals. Being robbed blind and then his place getting destroyed was their choice of delivering said message. The insider clearly made sure he got himself recruited, snuck the explosives in with him and prepared them while we were busy taking the credits. A most clever strategy, a plan within a plan."

"So they used you," Kasumi reasoned. "They used you to destroy a man's livlihood and put you at risk. You were their potential scapegoat if things went wrong. The first to get retaliated against if this guy found out about you while their agent slipped off into the night."

Retz could only shrug at her unassumingly

"We still were able to keep our share, overall everyone got what they wanted," he said plainly. "Except maybe the Pirate who got his building blown up. He kind of ended up getting killed by a rival when they saw how weak he was. These things tend to work themselves out like that. However, I always remembered how we were used and it made me gravely concerned. I did admire the handiwork, but I didn't like us getting played like we were. I made it a mission of mine to make sure the _Serpent_ would never get stuck in such a situation again."

Kasumi couldn't help but admire that conviction, that desire to make sure your loved ones were safe. It was a tall order and Lord knew she had failed it once or twice herself. Retz was here trying to protect his ship from such exploitation.

The story helped clear her mind and eyes slowly glanced to the side of the bunk's leg. She noticed something odd, sticking out from the end. She bent down and started to pick at it curiously. It moved slightly as she did. Taking the odd piece in hand she yanked it back and revealed a hidden compartment within the bunk. Retz quickly kneeled down, along with Taq and looked inside.

"Recently made," he observed. "Must've cut into the bunk's side and made himself a secret spot to hide his gear. He worked pretty fast. Fortunately, he still had bad aim."

Retz reached into the compartment and pulled out a data module. Placing it into his wrist computer he activated it revealing a text message of some sort. Kasumi couldn't read it, it was in the kig-yar language. but Retz could.

"This is an activation order," he stated. "Straight from the Syndicate. He's part of a team sent here to take out Taq and either retrieve or destroy her Forerunner data module."

"We know all that though," Kasumi reminded him. "Confirming it isn't getting us closer. Does it say anything else?"

Retz nodded, pointing to a bit of text she couldn't read.

"This is interesting," he said. "It says here that he's not the primary. He's a secondary."

"What does that mean?" Kasumi asked. "He wasn't supposed to kill Taq?"

"Only if the primary failed," Retz replied plainly. "He was supposed to take over if their hit was unsuccessful. If true, it would appear he went off script, acted alone when he should've waited. That means it's likely Taq was not supposed to be targeted yet."

"Why would he go off script to kill me by himself?" Taq asked.

"We might be dealing with a less unified front here," Retz cautioned. "An assassin who wanted to grab the glory of the kill for himself, impress the Queen maybe, get advanced higher. Probably some young idiot who thought this would be easier than it looked. Now it's gotten them exposed and a man down. They'll need to replan, restructure, that at least gives us time."

Kasumi wasn't so sure she liked what Retz was saying though. If they now knew they had been found out that meant they'd get scared. She'd seen it before. A good crew for a job ends up turning on each other, worried that the mission is screwed, time to take off and run. Others want to stay, go through with what was planned. Either way, they get angry, they get desperate, they drop civility and just go in guns blazing. The longer that feeling of unease went on, the more problematic things would get until they reached a point where they decided to take a risk rather than execute something perfectly. Sure, they had time while they sorted things out, but things would be potentially more explosive when they did.

"So how do we use this to track them down?" Kasumi asked. "Does it say anything about a meeting place or how many of them there are exactly?"

"I don't think they'll risk giving that information," Retz told her. "All that's here is the overall instructions, their rank and position on the team and that they are to await further orders. Said orders would come from the Operational Leader, the guy organizing this whole party of theirs. He'd call the shots and if he's smart..."

Retz tried to locate any other files in the module, but found it empty.

"Yep, all of his other messages are designed to be deleted after being read," he groaned. "This is going to be a lot harder than I thought. We don't know where or if they met each other. All we know, is that they're potentially fracturing as they possibly have different motives."

"We can still hunt them down," Kasumi suggested. "I got a good idea where they might have met. Think about it, what's a regular meeting place for a lot of these guys? They're on a new ship, they need to know more about their target, the type of crew they're with, learn potential gossip that might be useful. Where would you find that? Where would you go to get the latest dirt on what's happening aboard a ship?"

It took only two seconds for both Taq and Retz to answer that at the same time.

"Bar."

"Exactly," Kasumi answered them both. "If they were here for any length of time, like any good Jackal, they probably wanted some ichor while they schemed."

"You really do know how we think, Ms. Goto," Retz smiled. "Come on, I need some water myself anyway. Bit thirsty."

"Hunting Pirate Spies will do that I hear," Kasumi joked, following closely after the two Jackals.

* * *

Garrus hadn't been a cop for years, but the training they gave you at C-SEC never really went away. When he arrived at the armory, he already had a set list of questions he wanted answered. Chief among them was concerning UNSC protocol concerning grenades. He needed to be sure everything was in order. With any luck, there would be no link to any humans picking up some unauthorized extra ordinance. That would make Holland happy certainly, last thing he needed was disciplining troops on behalf of the Jackals everyone disliked.

When they got inside the armory they found it filled to the brim with a lot of weapons, some human, a lot of them re-purposed Covenant tech. That was inevitable, given that this was a Covie carrier. However, even with most of the weapons being alien, there was a fair amount of UNSC guns too. He couldn't see any grenade boxes out in the open though.

"I will give the pirates this much credit," Samara relented as she looked around. "They certainly came through on their promise to provide us with ordinance."

"All the more reason to wrap this up quickly," Garrus told her. "Imagine if a Marine or Trooper gave that assassin a grenade after the Jackals gave us all this. The sooner we rule out any UNSC involvement the better."

The asari looked at Garrus suddenly rather skeptically.

"I understand the concept of innocence before guilt, but it would be best to not let your hopes cloud judgment," she warned. "It is entirely possible someone with access to this place stole weapons for the Pirates."

"I know, but I'd like to be proven wrong here," Garrus insisted. "Tensions are bad enough without the Pirates suspecting the UNSC of stirring up trouble on their ship."

"Agreed, but it is hard to ignore the obvious," Samara reminded him. "I am well aware of the discontent among the ODSTs in particular. I cannot say what one would hope to gain by assisting an assassin, but many feel the Jackals are long overdue for some kind of consequence for many of their slights."

"I know you feel the same way," Garrus recalled aloud. "You made that very clear to Zek himself."

Samara didn't even shrug at the comment, only giving a slight knowing gaze at the turian.

"My oath to Shepard prevents me from acting, my honor as a Justicar would be tarnished if I broke that vow," she explained. "In any case, they are currently a lesser evil in comparison to the one we now face. We must prioritize threats in the name of protecting the innocent."

"So, what, the Pirates helping us is like community service?" Garrus asked her, trying not to laugh.

"It would be more accurate to claim it as a stay of execution," she replied coldly.

Garrus was now regretting he had ever bothered asking that. Sometimes it was easy to forget that, as good-natured and wise as Samara was, she was also very methodical, no nonsense. She'd probably get along with Miranda, if the Ex-Cerberus Officer's prior association with said terrorist organization didn't mark her as well.

Come to think of it, a lot of people on their crew would probably be dead by now if Samara had any say. He'd probably get lucky because the worst he had been was a vigilante and had only killed the unjust. Kasumi probably wouldn't die, unless she resisted getting sent to jail maybe. Jack, oh she'd certainly be dead. Grunt was the product of murder, but had never committed it himself, he was safe. Tali was safe, Jacob probably not as much so. Depended really on whether or not the asari considered him guilty or just naive for joining Cerberus and if he had really done anything wrong. Mordin, possibly, his work on the Genophage could be considered a war crime. Legion, no idea on that, he wasn't sure if being a machine exempted you from asari justice. Thane, tricky, he imagined not all of his victims as an assassin for the Hanar were completely guilty. Samara might still see it as such though, murder is murder after all.

Yet her oath to Shepard kept her check from doing her usual job. That had to be difficult on some days for her. You devoted your life to the Justicars, serving out justice to the unjust and now you were confined to shackle yourself to someone else for a duration of time. He had seen her just let loose on the Hollow though, maybe that had been enough to work out her frustrations for the time. Still, there was a whole ship of lawbreakers just next door who flaunted their guilt a lot. It had to be hard to hold herself back, even now.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the Sergeant at Arms. He announced his presence by coughing into his hand rather loudly. They turned to see the slightly heavy set Army Soldier holding a datapad in hand already approaching them. He a rather bored and tired look on his face.

"Got the protocols right here for ya," he said in a gruff sounding tone. "Still running inventory on the grenades themselves. Sorry it's taking so long. We're kinda short-handed here these days."

"I understand," Garrus said, taking the datapad from the non-com. "Where exactly are the grenades anyway?"

"Locked up in the secure room I've got in the back of my office," he answered, pointing behind him with his thumb. "It's makeshift, being this is a Covie ship and all, but I make it work. I'm in there almost every hour of every day and it's all locked down when I leave. I got the only electronic key as well. I'm telling you guys, ain't no way anyone stole anything on my watch."

That was quite possible, but Garrus wanted to hit every base just to be sure. He went over the protocols rather quickly and they seemed pretty tight. However, that didn't mean much of anything, not in his experience. Their time with the Jackals, as annoying as it was, did teach him something. Everyone bent the rules now and again.

"It says here you have to clear every ordinance request that anyone makes," he noted. "Specifically about grenades. Is that right Sergeant Ellery?"

"Just call me Paul," the Sergeant responded. "No one calls me Ellery but my Ma. And yeah, I have to clear everything."

"Standard grenade count is about three per soldier," Garrus said, reading briskly from the datapad once more "Sometimes five if proper clearance is given, but that always takes a little time doesn't it?"

"I guess," Paul shrugged. "That's just details though. It often depends on rank. I usually don't got the time to bother with a lot of it."

"And any unused grenades have to be returned to storage," Garrus added. "Is that correct?"

Paul's bored and uninterested expression now carried a bit frustration.

"Yeah," he admitted. "But it's also protocol that every used grenade is recorded so we don't lose track. Soldiers or their officers are required to do routine ammo checks, that's one of the things they look for. You can't just sneak a grenade out and not give it back."

"Point is though, now and again, someone might want more than protocol says they can take," Garrus informed Paul. "An extra clip, a second side-arm, heavier weapon, maybe even a few more grenades. I also imagine that some people don't want to go through the paperwork of authorizing every little stupid request."

Paul just groaned, crossing his arms in indignation.

"If you got an end point just say," he requested.

"I'm saying you don't like adding more time to your day," Garrus explained. "And maybe, just now and again, you have someone ask for more than protocol allows. You don't want to bother with all the little bits of red tape yourself either, you just want to get your job done for the day. I know the feeling, had a similar disposition."

"Point please," Paul asked again, growing impatient.

"That's my point, you don't like wasting time or sweating the details," the turian declared, now speaking rather directly and quickly. "Some soldier comes up, he wants an extra clip or two. You figure, he's on a dangerous mission, he could use the extra ammo. So you give it to him, what's the harm? He might not even use it. It's just to set his mind at ease. So you skip on the authorizing and just pass him the bullets. Not a big deal, you're just trying to help a fellow warrior out."

"I follow the rules I need to," Paul claimed. "I'm not running some black market here. I keep an inventory and I report it back. That's my job, I do that job and I do it well."

"Not saying you don't," Garrus assured him. "Hell, if you are giving out extra ammo, I bet you only have the best intentions at heart. However, I need to know if you gave out any extra grenades lately to anyone. Specifically on the recent mission at that Plasma Coil factory."

Paul scratched the back of his neck, scrunching his face as he did. Eventually he just grunted and shrugged.

"I don't recall giving anyone, anything," he stated. "I did my job, that's it."

Samara stepped up glaring at Paul as she did.

"A grenade was used against a resident of this fleet, Paul," she informed him coldly. "A grenade that could've cost the life of someone valuable to our current mission. The only place to get them is from you. You're in control of them. Either you gave more grenades then you should've or someone stole one from you on your watch. If it's the latter, we can only assume you are complicit."

"Hey, whoa," Paul said putting up his hands. "Okay, I might be a little lazy when it comes to paperwork, but I'd never give someone a grenade if I thought they were gonna use it on the wrong people. We're out in the middle of nowhere, we got bad guys all around us. If someone wants another bomb on their person, who am I to judge? It's thanks to those pirates we got a surplus anyway. Who's gonna miss a few?"

"How many are a few and who did you give them out to?" Garrus asked once more.

Paul could only sigh.

"Alright, it was about three extra," he relented. "Figured no one would really care. Plenty of plasma ones we can use if we run out of those. As to who it was, some ODST, had his helmet on, didn't know who he was, didn't give his name. Last minute request really, just handed them to him and he took off."

"And those were the only grenades you gave out?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah, most I could do," Paul continued. "I figured with all the chucking the Drop Troopers do in a fight, he'd use them all up anyhow and it would be recorded. Subtract it from the inventory, done. Nothing wrong, no one is the wiser, everyone wins."

Garrus was already on his omni-tool before Paul even finished. He put in a download request for the after action report concerning the ODST operation on the Plasma Coil factory. It didn't take long to get it. He then highlighted grenades concerning the reports. According to what he was reading, every ODST was afforded three grenades. No one reported they had six. He then checked how many grenades were used in combat. Surprisingly a lot, as Paul suggested they did like to chuck a lot. Only seven grenades were reported returned. The numbers seemed to add up when you did the math concerning the official paperwork. That was when the inventory report came in, handed to Paul by the soldier he had had counting the grenades for the past hour or so.

"Well, there you are," Paul said. "You'll see that everything is in order when you compare it to the inventory count prior to the action."

Garrus did compare the numbers, but his grim look never left. Paul was suddenly knocked out of his bored stupor and now looked a little concerned. Garrus showed him the comparison himself on his omni-tool, flipping the screen for the Sergeant. He also showed the calculations for the after action report along with it. Just in case he didn't get it then, Garrus spelled it out in full.

"You're three short," the turian told him bluntly.

Garrus shoved the protocol datapad back into Paul's chest. Then both he and Samara marched out of the armory leaving a rather dumbfounded Sergeant behind them. Garrus supposed he should've been more sympathetic, the guy didn't think he had been doing anything wrong. He was just helping out his brothers in arms, but it had also almost cost someone their life. Garrus wasn't in the mood to comfort him. An ODST had taken more grenades then he should've and then kept them. He had hoped to close this link and instead Retz's suspicions had been confirmed. Now they had another problem to deal with.

"We need to contact McKay," he told Samara.

"She will not like what we have to report," she informed him.

"I won't like telling her," Garrus replied. "But we need to find where those other two grenades are before they do any more damage."

* * *

The _Serpent's_ bar was not nearly as boisterous as Kasumi thought it would be. The lockdown hadn't done anything to stave off anyone's thirst, but everyone looked more wary. Word of potential Syndicate Agents among them had obviously spread. Everyone was keeping to their own tables, more or less, or just getting their drinks and leaving. When Retz arrived with her and Taq and tow, Kasumi noticed the less energetic atmosphere. No one was partying like they usually did, they were keeping their eyes on each other, mumbling to themselves, speaking to their own little circles. Mostly though, they avoided eye contact with Retz. They even moved away from the stools near the bar itself just to give him enough space. The somber scene was contrasted by the song Boz was playing on the radio, Hush by Deep Purple.

Retz pulled himself up on a stool and let Taq and Kasumi sit beside him on either end. Behind the bar was a sleezy looking Jackal, even for his species. He had a scratched up beak and a few missing quills and quite a few plasma burns on his arms. Also very grungy looking light armor on his chest. Honestly, he was everything Kasumi expected a Jackal bartender to look like.

"Row, how are things?" Retz asked him.

"Busy," he stated bluntly with a grumbly voice. "This lockdown has every dipshit on this tub sucking down Ichor like there is no tomorrow. This Syndicate Agent nonsense has them all thinking they've been targeted and some are worried those ODST jackboots are gonna kick in the airlock to resolve this themselves. Preferably by shooting everyone and letting whatever deity they worship sort us out later."

"All the more reason to help us wrap this case up," Kasumi told him. "Maybe we can stop this before it gets messy."

"Fine by me, then people can calm down and I can go on break," Row replied. "What do you need?"

"Glass of water maybe," Retz said as he placed a datapad on the table. "Also, information from you. Did you ever see this kig-yar around here?"

Zek tapped the pad to reveal the face of the now dead assassin. Row picked it up and gave it look. After a few seconds, he started nodding.

"Yeah, I remember him," he recalled. "Was in here celebrating with some of the boys after the raid. Well, I say celebrating, but he was the buzzkill. Kept making a nuisance of himself, complaining to anyone who he could force to listen."

"What about?" Kasumi asked curiously.

"Well, the gist of it was he wasn't satisfied," Row admitted. "Something about being passed over, how he deserved more credit, how his friends seemed against him. Mouthy prick, honestly, I get as a bartender I'm supposed to be a sympathetic ear to people, but he just kept bitching no matter what I or anyone else tried to say to him. At some point your pity only goes so far, so I just kept nodding hoping he'd tire himself out."

"Did he say anything specific about his problems that you can remember?" Kasumi asked.

Row scratched the side of his beak for a moment, slightly lost in thought as he tried to recall anything. While he did that he got Retz his glass of water, pouring from the tap nearby. Once he placed it down, his memory finally kicked in.

"From what I can remember was he angry at his mates," he said rather simply. "About how they were wasting his time, that he was smarter than all of them. Something about a job they were taking too long to do because they spent more time discussing it than doing it. I think he said he could do it alone, they were baggage and he'd get the credit for it all. I honestly wasn't sure what to make of it, because I couldn't be sure if he was angry at something that had already happened or was going to happen. He was all over the place with tenses. Point was he felt he was ready and they weren't and it was costing them."

"I see," Retz said, nodding knowingly. "Was he drunk at this point?"

"Nah, not unless his drink of choice was anger," Row clarified as he cleaned out a leftover glass with a rag. "I wanted to get him to drink something to at least calm down and, admittedly, loosen his tongue. If there was some score they were working I figured you and Zek would wanna know about it. Could've given you guys some major trouble. In the end he just took off and I just let it be. Decided he was just mouthing off and being an ass for no good reason. Lots of guys like him really, can't let a grudge go. I figured, no sense in making a fuss about it. He'd cool off eventually. Guess I probably should've thought otherwise since we're here talking about him."

Retz just took a sip from his glass and sighed.

"It's fine, Row," he assured the bartender. "I can't expect you to report every angry crewmember who mouths off. Probably wouldn't have changed anything if you had. I don't suppose you saw him with anyone specifically? Like any longer conversations? Crewmembers that looked like they knew him?"

"If he was I didn't see it," Row said, shaking his head. "Lot of people in here and he only stuck out when he decided to make a scene. If he met with anyone or talked to anyone it went under my radar. Too many people in here regularly, I can't keep track of all of them."

"Fair enough," Retz relented. "Thanks anyway. Let me know if you do recall anything else."

Row just nodded and walked back down the bar. Not nearly as much information as Kasumi had hoped. Retz wasn't all that happy either. He just sat there stirring the water in his glass despondently at the whole thing.

"At least this confirms they're fractured," Kasumi said, trying to put a positive spin on the situation. "Their friend moved before they were ready. Better yet, sounds like there's conflict. They don't know how they're going to get the job done."

"I bet it has something to do with the data module," Taq chimed in. "The information on this thing is incredibly valuable. Who's to say they don't want it for themselves? If I were them and I knew what was in it, I'd probably want to snatch it intact myself."

"It's just so disappointing is all," Retz said, throwing his hands up slightly. "You expect better of Syndicate Agents. More professionalism, cohesion, an actual plan beforehand. One that the Lead Operative would've thought of in advance. This infighting is so... uncharacteristic."

"Perhaps reality just doesn't always match up to the real thing," Kasumi told him.

Retz just shook his head.

"I know the reality, I've seen it," he reminded her. "They're smarter than this. I expected anyone who got onto this ship without me knowing to be better than this. It's embarrassing."

Being a thief, Kasumi actually understood security a fair amount. People took pride in their ability to keep people out of places they didn't want them to be. For some it wasn't just about safety, it was about being smarter than those trying to break in. In truth, she actually respected a lot of average security guards and rent-a-cops guarding the stuff she stole. They were just doing their jobs, same as her. It wasn't their fault she was just too good at it.

She never thought she'd get the other side of that coin from a fellow crook though. It kind of made sense for Retz though. He took a lot of pride in outsmarting people, she had seen that firsthand. Now he was facing a threat he had prepared to confront for who knows how long and it sounded like they shouldn't have even gotten this far.

"Maybe there's more to it," Kasumi suggested. "Maybe the Pirate Queens in charge jumped the gun and put these guys together at the last minute. They had to have a very limited window to get people aboard on the Hollow and there was no guarantee Taq would even end up here."

"Not all of them probably arrived during the Hollow," Retz suggested solemnly. "Some of them could've been among the kig-yar we invited aboard when we took the _Chorka_. Agents are installed everywhere, even in the Covenant, to act as informants or saboteurs if need be. Chances are there are a few among Snarlbeak's crew as well, that's how they learned about the data module and Taq in the first place. They probably wanted to cover their bases when they realized the possibility she might leave with us. So that's when they had agents sneak aboard our ship in preparation for that outcome."

Retz took a long swig of his water, glaring into the glass as he put it back down.

"So maybe it was haphazard, maybe they weren't able to pick and choose their agents," he admitted. "That still isn't an excuse for me missing this. Worse, it makes this more treacherous. They're that desperate to get this data, they're forgoing usual subtlety in their methods. That never leads to anything good."

Kasumi could already tell something was stirring in Retz's mind before he even looked to her. Another memory of his was bubbling to the surface. A memory he wanted to share.

"We had pulled off a difficult hijacking of a freighter hauling a lot of credit chips," he began slowly. "It was a secret account of some Minor Prophet in the Covenant. He didn't want people to know he was hoarding cash with the whole war going on. No one likes being taxed after all. We had liberated him of that problem and decided to celebrate at this big club on the Hollow a big name Pirate Fleetmaster owned. Zek and I thought it would be a nice night out on the town. We didn' realize that our gracious host had run afoul of the Syndicate. Apparently, he had only come into prominence recently because he was selling the Covenant information on the Syndicate's operations so long as he was left alone. He thought he had tricked them, gotten away with it."

"He was wrong?" Kasumi presumed.

"Dead wrong, pardon the pun," Retz confirmed gravely. "One of this Pirate's rivals had a Syndicate Agent installed in his fleet. He convinced him to attack the snitch's club on the day we were coincidentally visiting. Nothing subtle about the plan, the Queens wanted the tattletale dead and in a very spectacular way. Next thing we know, the doors are busted open, needles and bolts are flying everywhere and we're just trying to keep our heads down long enough to survive. I forced Zek to stay put while I found us an exit. In the chaos I managed to run across our host trying to get into his office and lock the door behind him. He probably hoped to escape through some back door or something. Instead, all I hear is a bunch of screaming. There was a Syndicate Agent waiting for him, just in case the full frontal approach didn't work. When I managed to open the door I found the snitch with his belly cut wide open and a message that said, 'Now he needs Stitches', written out in his own blood."

"Ugh, pleasant," Taq grumbled sardonically. "Was that last part really necessary?"

"The agent clearly thought it was," Retz said shrugging. "Luckily I managed to get Zek out of there through the escape hatch our host had attempted to use. But the point remains, when Syndicate Agents throw their usual playbook out, things get messy in more ways than one. And even then, there's always a backup just in case. If they are cracking, you can bet one of them is already devising a separate plan in case everything goes wrong. And whatever it is, it won't be pretty."

There were inevitable moments that Kasumi felt truly shaken about things. They happened when reality caught up to her daredevil attitude. When the things she found exciting revealed their less than noble colors. Retz's story was one of those times. It wasn't that she was simply oblivious to the danger she faced, just that she tried to ignore it. When you admitted a job was dangerous, expressed your doubts and fears in any overt fashion, they became real. When she was younger she had let that fear slip, let it worm into her brain and then she made mistakes that almost cost her.

However, reality was inescapable. What she did was dangerous, recent events had made that all too clear. Once again, Retz's story became a reminder that this was no game. These people were assassins, they were brutal and they were merciless. Worst of all, unlike the threats she had faced before, they were already inside. They were among the crew, hiding in plain sight. She scanned the room, trying to discern the faces of those around them. Trying to pick up on any hints to no avail.

"They'll slip up," she insisted once again, trying to keep optimistic. "When they do we have them. We just gotta keep chasing leads. We can root them out, I know it."

"Yeah, like the ultimate game of hide and seek," Taq said scowling.

Kasumi and Retz eyed the female Jackal mournfully.

"I'm sorry," Kasumi apologized. "I know this has to be stressful for you."

"I'm good with stressful, I rob ancient tombs for a living," Taq assured her grimacing. "I wouldn't be good at it if I couldn't handle a little stress. Hell, I managed to tolerate Zek for a little over a year, that's a feat of immense fortitude on my part."

She sighed, dipping her head into her palms while ruffling her quills.

"I was prepared for Zhoc to come after me," she admitted. "I was okay with that. Really, I was. I just wanted a good score, that's all. They say that's your right. That if you can accept the risk you can get the reward. Well how the fuck was I supposed to know this risk? Huh? I just wanted to find something amazing and make enough money to never worry about work again! So I could pick where I went, not have to worry about making ends meet every other day! Now I got a target on my back put there by the fucking Syndicate and why? Because of something I found! And they probably decided I was dead the second I did for whatever fucked up reason!"

She slammed her fists on the table, causing Retz's glass to shake.

"It's not fair!" She said, almost sobbing. "It's my damn claim! I found it! I should be able to get it! Now I'm stuck on this stupid ship with my asshole of an Ex making advances at me every other minute along with a fucking death warrant on me! All because of one stupid job I took, one stupid fucking job! If they want what's in the stupid wreck so bad, let me get it! I can negotiate a price! They can have it! Play the fucking game fair! That's all I ask! That's what I deserve!"

Retz placed a sympathetic hand on her back as she lowered her head.

"I know, I know, you're right, it's not fair," he sadly agreed. "But the Syndicate doesn't really deal in fair. They deal in the status quo. Perhaps they think any pirate that possesses what your module has on it is too dangerous to their power. Whatever the reason though, it doesn't matter. If we can get rid of these agents now, they won't be a problem later."

"I just want to be an archaeologist," she whimpered. "I just want to dig and find cool shit. I never did nothing to those bitches and they want me dead for doing my job that I love. It is so fucked up."

Retz just nodded and signaled to Row with his hand. He slid a cup of Ichor over to Taq who eagerly drank it down.

"Thanks, Retz," she said smiling as she placed the cup down. "You always know what to do."

"I make it a habit with everyone," he grinned. "But with you, well, it's special. You have every right to hate him, I won't dispute that, but Zek still loves you. He wouldn't like seeing you unhappy."

Taq just snickered at that.

"I would hope you're not just nice to me because I'm your best friend's Ex," she chided him.

"I admire people who love what they do, Taq," he stated firmly. "And you were always a pleasure to work with. I was gravely upset to know Zek had hurt you. The three of us worked so well together and I missed you being a part of this crew. I have very few true friends, you see. You're one of them, never doubt that."

Taq beamed at that, as did Kasumi. The scene had stiffened her resolve. Taq didn't deserve this, no one did. She hadn't hurt the Syndicate, they were all just afraid of what she might find and what she might do. All the more reason to stop this before it got further. Everyone deserved a chance at the good life, she knew that better than most. Who were these Pirate Queens to decide Taq didn't get her due? They had to think of something. Someway to track these assassins down. As her thoughts wandered, she looked to the ceiling and spotted something attached to it. A camera node, part of the ship's security system, pointed right at the bar. That was when she got an idea.

"Hey, this ship has cameras, right?" She reminded Retz. "They work, right?"

"Yes," Retz recalled. "I considered using it to track our assassin as well. Problem is, it's not going to be easy identifying his associates on it. It doesn't sound like they actually met here in the bar to talk like we had hoped. At least not in the way we suspected they would. And we can't be certain if anyone he talked to is part of his team if he was mouthing off to everyone for extended periods of time."

"But maybe we could at least retrace his steps," Kasumi suggested. "Find out where, if at all, they met each other. Hell, if we're lucky, we'll find out when he received that grenade. If what Garrus reported to us a while ago is true, we know he had to receive it at some point after the raid."

"It's worth a shot," Retz relented, scratching beneath his beak. "But there's a lot of footage to go through on that night, lot of data on the computer to analyze."

"I know someone who can help with that," Kasumi assured.

She opened up her omni-tool and contacted the _Normandy_. When she connected to who she wanted she grinned sly into the holoscreen.

"Tali, I need a favor."

* * *

McKay had been waiting for them at the entrance to the Drop Troopers' barracks. As Garrus had predicted she was not happy to see them. He understood why, this was the last thing she needed facing the scrutiny she was under from her own people. They couldn't change facts though, an ODST had taken extra grenades and not returned them. They needed to be found.

McKay had already gathered all the ODSTs under her command within the main quarters. The situation had already been explained, so at least that was out of the way. Weeding out the guilty party was all that remained. Garrus hoped it would just be a simple matter of searching them all and finding the grenades on hand. For all they knew though, the Trooper in question had already given them all out or was hiding them somewhere out of the way. Finding their perpetrator would more than likely take a bit of doing.

"Just to let you know," McKay forewarned Garrus. "There's a few Troopers who feel they're being persecuted here. I don't think it would be any different if Haverson was handling this himself, but you were closer to what happened during the mutiny than him."

"If it helps, I only ever tried to defend myself against most of them," Garrus explained. "I tried not to kill anyone if it could be avoided and I didn't like having to fire on them. I was doing what I knew was right. It wasn't personal."

"I know that, I was in the same situation and they don't care," McKay reiterated simply. "Just don't be surprised if you get death glares. Now lets get this over with."

When they got inside they found the assembled unit standing at attention on either side of the room. McKay dressed down each side with her gaze as Garrus and Samara stood at the front of the assembly. As the Trooper Leader had just warned him, more than a few of her men were glaring at him. He imagined at least of them had opened fire on him during the mutiny. He couldn't tell which, they had all been wearing helmets at the time after all.

"We know why we're all here," McKay began. "Someone has violated our trust. Garrus and Samara are only here to find out who. We cannot operate with members of this unit committing acts of subterfuge for whatever reason. I'd prefer to settle this quickly, so simply cooperate."

"Why? So we can get railroaded by the turian and the freaky blue girl in an efficient manner?" Collis asked, snorting at the air.

There were a grumbles from his side of the room, one that sounded a lot like murmurings of agreement. Not a good start. To McKay's credit she tried to get order back quickly, glaring at the offending side as she did.

"No one is getting railroaded," she informed them. "I've already explained the evidence they have. They need to confirm it, that is all."

"Like any of this crap makes the remotest sense," Collis piped up. "Just because Paul claims he gave a Drop Trooper extra grenades doesn't mean a thing. He's probably just trying to cover his ass because he misplaced some, the lazy bastard."

"And anyone could've been dressed like an ODST," Fadden continued. "It's not like he can ID any distinguishing features, not even a name tag on the uniform."

As expected they were already trying to make up an excuse to deny the possibility any of them were involved. Didn't suggest guilt, but it did suggest they were looking out for one another. Garrus had seen it with too many corrupt C-SEC officers. They made up excuses, they corroborated clearly fake stories and always tried to find an out. It was another reason it had been so easy for him to go with Shepard when they first met. C-SEC back then was full of people who disgraced the uniform. He tried to keep those memories in check though, this was a different situation. These were professional military soldiers who had been fighting for their species for decades now. He doubted any of them had done this out of greed or scoring a commission. That didn't mean he was going to let these excuses slip by.

"Paul seemed pretty surprised when he found out he had missing grenades," Garrus informed the group. "He might cut corners, but he's been careful about it. He would've done a way better job covering up things if he knew he misplaced anything."

"And it is highly improbable someone impersonated one of you without your knowledge," Samara added. "There are very few spare ODST uniforms, all under lock and key due to rationing restrictions. I doubt a Marine or Soldier managed to sneak off with one and return it in time before it could be found missing."

"Still doesn't mean anything," Sergeant Lendon claimed. "Why would any of us do deals with the Psycho Turkeys? No one here likes them, not even them."

Lendon pointed towards Buck and his own squad. Buck did not like being singled out by his fellow Sergeant. Even if he was accusing him of anything, it still sort of sounded like he was. That much was clear from the expression on Buck's face. He liked things a lot less though when Corporal Fadden chimed in suddenly with his own two cents.

"I don't know Sarge," he said venomously. "I bet Rome could've traded a nade for some of their erotic crap. I hear he's into alien shit like that."

Dutch had to stop Romeo before he burst out of line, holding him by the shoulder. He couldn't stop his friend from barking back though.

"You wanna start something here, jackass?" He asked angrily. "Huh? You want a fight? Go ahead, I'll bust you wide open, motherfucker!"

"Easy, Rome," Buck told him. "He's just trying to bait ya."

"We don't need to take this shit from them, Buck!" Rome shot back. "They're the fucking traitors here! Not us!"

"We ain't traitors! We followed our CO!" Travers growled back. "You're the fucking traitors!"

"Everyone shut up!" McKay screamed at both sides. "You hear me? Shut it! This isn't about that, no one is above suspicion here. Garrus and Samara are going to conduct their investigation and you are all going to cooperate. I don't know why one of us would hand grenades to the Jackals, but we are going to settle that in time."

The brief offset of tension was relieved for the moment as everyone got back in line. Garrus could tell he needed to tread carefully. Everyone in here was on edge in more ways than one.

"First things first," Garrus began. "We need to figure out where everyone was. The more people we can account for, the more people we can rule out. I have Cortana poring over security footage from before and after the raid. I'd like to get some of your stories straight before then so we can compare them with the footage."

"Why not just rule us out?" Fadden asked. "We're the least likely suspects here."

"Yeah, its like Lendon said," Collis added erratically. "We wouldn't do deals with the Jackals. We hate those birds. Why'd we ever hand anything to them?"

When Collis said "we" it was clear he meant his side of the room. The side with all of Silva's still loyal supporters to be perfectly clear. Fadden also spoke up again to add to the thought himself. Garrus supposed he had to give a reason, he wasn't sure they'd like it.

"I'm not saying any of the ODSTs that didn't participate in the mutiny are absolved here, McKay has already made that clear," he reminded them. "Any one of them could be more trusting because of that. That trust could be misplaced and they probably could've done it thinking it was okay to give them the grenades as a show of good faith. However, let's be honest here, there's plenty of motivation for those among you who followed Silva's mutiny. Undermining the current alliance for one, seeing as I'm keenly aware a lot of you don't agree with it. There's plenty of motivation to go around. Right now, I'm trying to establish opportunity. We can discuss motivation after we figure that one out."

It didn't seem to win him any fans, but the ODSTs didn't offer further objections. So they began the task of asking for alibis, starting with those sympathetic to McKay on their side of the room. This was an attempt to show they weren't playing favorites. It probably wasn't too effective at garnering cooperation, but at least it was something.

Buck was the first, along with his squad. Partially because Garrus wanted to absolve one of his friends from any wrongdoing from the the get go, but also because he was probably the only one he could trust to be honest straight out. Buck had after all been one of the first ODSTs to help him out during the whole mutiny fiasco. If he couldn't trust him, well, Garrus figured they'd already be in trouble.

"I went straight to mess for chow, same with everyone else on my squad," he stated. "I was really tired, it had been a long raid and I didn't see anyone. Before the raid, well, listening to that Buzzard guy. He's got decent tunes."

"Firing range they set up in the big ass hangar," Romeo was quick to add. "That's where I was the whole time before the call came in and I didn't put my helmet on until we got into the Pelican. You can ask the Marines who were there with me, I remember their names and everything."

"Looking at some of my old messages in my bunk," Dutch stated next. "I got nostalgic I guess. Like Buck says though, we were all in the mess together after and I wasn't looking for anyone suspicious."

Garrus trusted those statements, mostly because they had no reason to lie and they didn't sound like it. The security cams would confirm their stories one way or another. Garrus came next to Gilfoyle, who seemed a little reluctant at first. His stance was less sure, his shoulders slumped. The turian tried his best not to make a big deal over it, not give anything away. It didn't technically mean anything anyway, lots of people were just naturally nervous like this.

"I was in the barracks most of the day, not doing anything special," he tried to explain. "That's mostly it. Went back there after the raid."

"Anyone see you?" Garrus asked. "Anyone outside the ODSTs anyway?"

"No," he said, a little too quickly for Garrus' taste. "No one really. I was just doing my own thing. I didn't see or do nothing."

The fidgeting was not helping his case. Samara picked up on it too and set herself upon him almost instantly. That did not help his nerves.

"It would be best if you were honest, Corporal," she cautioned.

"I am, I didn't do anything," he claimed again, shaking slightly in his spot. "I just... I went back to my bunk. I didn't have much to do, so I went back there."

"These are serious charges, Gilfoyle," McKay informed him sternly, joining the conversation as well. "I suggest you give us something better than that."

Gilfoyle looked around the room and he could already see his fellow ODSTs were giving him looks. He quickly shook his head about, lowering it to the ground.

"I didn't do anything bad," he swore. "I just... I wanted privacy. It was nothing, honest."

"Then there is no reason to dance around the subject," Samara reiterated. "Where were you?"

Gilfoyle groaned outwardly, clearly not comfortable at all. Garrus lightly pushed McKay and Samara to the side and looked at the trooper directly himself. With a calming look, he tried to persuade the kid to be honest.

"If you've seen something tell us, no one will judge you," he assured him. "We just want the truth."

"I didn't see anything," he reiterated. "I couldn't have, I was nowhere even near the armory."

"Then where were you?" Garrus asked, firmly but non-threatening.

Finally, Gilfoyle just sighed and threw up his hands.

"I was talking to your shrink," he relented.

It took a second for Garrus to figure it out.

"Chambers?" Garrus asked confused.

"She promised to keep it under wraps, I made her, don't blame her, okay," the Corporal insisted. "I didn't want anyone to know, it's on me. Please, this ain't her fault."

"Why were you seeing Yeoman Chambers?" McKay asked, also confused.

Gilfoyle looked almost ashamed as he looked at them, crestfallen even.

"I was in the hangar the whole time, back on Halo I mean, during the mutiny," he began. "I didn't want to disobey the Major's orders, but I didn't want to disobey Holland either. So, I just guarded the area and tried to keep my head down and my radio open. Every channel, I just wanted to know what was going on and then... well then... the Flood."

Garrus remembered, when _Truth and Reconciliation_ attempted liftoff it alerted the Flood still inside the ship to attack. A lot of good ODSTs ended up getting ambushed before they could even make the hangar. It was why the units numbers were so slim now. While some still thought Silva was right regardless, it was big factor in changing a lot of opinions among the Drop Troopers, creating the current split.

"I heard everything," Gilfolye continued distantly. "I heard every Drop Trooper screaming in my ear, every last word, every panicked cry. I finally just tore off my helmet and ran into the nearest Pelican and... I... I curled up. I just freaked out, I prayed, did whatever. I thought I could drown out the screaming, but it didn't work. I kept hearing them. I still do."

"You believed Yeoman Chambers could assist you in silencing them," Samara concluded, sounding much more sympathetic than before.

"I heard she was a psychiatrist and I figured she could help, I didn't want anyone knowing though," Gilfoyle answered dutifully. "I asked her to meet me in this side room, off the _Normandy_ , she agreed to keep it quiet, even from her fellow shipmates. I insisted she did or I'd call it off. She wanted to help, so she agreed. I didn't want anyone thinking I cracked at first and then I didn't want her getting in trouble for helping me off the record."

McKay nodded in understanding at the Corporal.

"You didn't have to go behind anyone's backs on this," she informed him. "You could've come to me and I would've tried to set this up officially."

"But then you would've taken me off mission maybe and everyone would think I was getting special treatment," Gilfoyle said meekly. "I didn't want let the unit down, not when we lost so many good people. I just wanted to do my job and get some help, that's all."

There was a derisive snort after that remark.

"You ain't no help if you're gonna crack up at the first sign of trouble," Collis quipped. "Glad you weren't watching my ass during that raid. Surprised you haven't gotten someone killed yet."

McKay was quick to react, turning to Collis and pointing aggressively at him, eyes burning with boiling anger.

"Shut it, now," she demanded sternly. "I hear one more word out of you, Collis, and you're peeling every potato from Hydroponics for the next week. Then when you're done, I'll find some other boring ass fucking job for you to do and stick you on it. And the same goes for all of you. Lock your traps unless you're spoken to."

Collis backed up at that, returning to line and nodding in recognition. McKay turned back to Gilfoyle, the anger subsiding.

"We're going to discuss this further later," she told him. "We'll set up a regular session with Chambers, official this time. No going behind people's backs to get it done."

Gilfoyle saluted, accepting the judgment. One problem down it seemed. The rest of the interviews went a lot smoother, even the ex-mutineers side. They all basically had the same story, they were in the mess and for the most part they could cover each other's alibis. There was really nothing that stood out as a contradiction at first. No surprise, these people were professionals, they had been trained in advanced interrogation techniques. Not all of them were great at it, but they knew how to answer questions when asked. These weren't scared criminals hoping to get off when their lawyers arrived, they were soldiers and they knew how to handle this kind of situation.

But now they had all their stories, so now they could look for possible discrepancies in them. It wasn't long after they got everyone's statements that Cortana sent the compiled security footage. The Covenant weren't apparently very thorough about cameras it seemed. A lot of the Carrier was covered, not all of it but most of it. Garrus just focused on the mess hall, where most of the ODSTs claimed they had been for a good long while after the raid. It looked like most of the ODSTs were there, situated in their own little corner and minding their own business. Easy to keep an eye on, even easier to pick out individuals.

Usually it would take hours and a whole team searching through this stuff to find anything useful. Lucky for Garrus though, Cortana was no slouch in the investigative department herself. She had already found the other ODSTs on several cameras, corroborating most of the stories. She had also done the grunt work of highlighting points she found questionable. When Garrus saw what she found in the mess, he knew he finally had something to go on. He returned to the group at large and walked over to Sergeant Lendon, Corporals Fadden, Travers and Private Collis. He showed them the video and let it play as he narrated the action.

"You were all in the mess, for about five to ten minutes each," he said glaring at them. "Then you each get up around the same time and leave the room. You all failed to mention that."

The video showed exactly that, Collis leaving first, Travers second about a minute later and Fadden and Lendon a few minutes later about the same time. Lendon stared at Garrus gruffly, barely even flinching.

"Doesn't prove jackshit," he claimed.

"It proves you're hiding something," Garrus informed him. "Cortana tried to follow you, but you all suspiciously keep avoiding the cameras when you can. You want to explain that or should I chalk it up to coincidence?"

Lendon shrugged and everyone else kept their lips shut. That was until McKay stepped up to the plate. She gave one look at them and, still staring them down, spoke to the rest of the unit.

"Everyone back away from the suspects," she ordered before announcing in a more demanding tone, "now."

It took a few seconds, but they complied. The four were now separated from the rest of their fellow Troopers, isolated. They were still standing at attention, but they looked a lot more alone. McKay kept a close eye on all of them as Samara loomed in the background, her eyes giving off their own death glare.

"Talk," McKay ordered. "Now."

"There's nothing to say," Travers claimed.

"Bullshit there isn't," McKay spat back, speaking methodically and patiently. "You've been talking plenty. You really think I'm stupid. I know what every one of you thinks of me. I hear all of it. Every. Last. Line. Chief of Security is ONI, you think your crap gets by him? Think again. You think Cortana can't fucking hear you? You're wrong. You four have been some of the most vocal, the ones undermining me to my face at every chance you get. Now, how about you stop with the shit and start talking before I decide to let Samara handle this her way."

Samara's hands were already glowing bright blue. It didn't seem to bother three of the accused, but Collis was a different story. He groaned outwardly, throwing up his hands.

"Fine, fuck it, I ain't taking this shit today," he declared angrily. "You wanna PT me for it, whatever. I took no grenade, I wasn't selling to the Jackals. I'm not going to get saddled with that shit. I left for personal matters."

"Specifics?" Garrus asked.

Collis went to his bunk and dug around for something beneath his pillow.

"I knew where someone was going to be, I wanted to be there," he exclaimed, pulling out an OSD drive.

He handed it to Garrus, practically slamming it into his palm.

"Take it, force me to clean out the toilets with my tongue," he demanded. "I am not getting blamed for some blackmarket crap."

Garrus plugged the drive into his omni-tool. When he opened the file he saw Miranda Lawson, wearing her black outfit, handing a datapad to someone not in photograph. Garrus imagined though it was Haverson and the datapad contained her personal report on the raid from her perspective. There were several pictures actually, some more directed at certain parts of Miranda's anatomy than others. Garrus, Samara and McKay all instantly looked at Collis disgusted. He just stared back emotionless at them all.

"I get bored here, I need something to do," was his only response.

McKay closed Garrus' omni-tool for him. She then walked over to Collis, and with no warning, punched him in the gut. The ODST dropped to his knees and hands groaning in agony.

"You're not getting off so easy as latrine duty, degenerate," she told him harshly as she stared down at him. "Every morning for the next week is going to be fucking hell, you get me? Up early, two hours before everyone else. You are going to run around this ship's overgrown hangar bay until you feel like throwing up. Your rations, halved. Your potato duty, peeling with a women's razor. I'll lend you mine. And I'll be sure to come up with a few more ideas once I discuss them with Commander Shepard personally. I will be watching you, Collis, you understand me? Like a fucking hawk. Now get up!"

Collis forced himself to stand, still in great physical pain. McKay didn't always look like much, but she knew just where to hit a man and hard. However, as satisfying as it was to see him get what he deserved, it seemed Collis had been too busy with other things to concern himself with anything else. That left three.

"Would you like to add something to your previous statement, Travers?" Garrus asked. "McKay's still mad at Collis right now, she might go easier on you."

"I won't," Samara assured. "Not if he is hiding a greater guilt."

"Hey, I'm not a fucking pervert, I was smart enough to bring my own stuff," Travers assured. "McKay's got nothing on my mom. She'd kill me if she ever found out I was doing that shit."

"In that case, there's no reason not to be honest then," Garrus informed him. "Spill it, now."

Travers sighed, the sign of a man who had run out of decent options.

"Okay, I left the mess, and I was trying not to be seen," he relented. "But I didn't go anywhere near the Jackals. I just wanted to check out something in the hangar for myself. I wanted... I wanted to sit in one of the Seraphs."

"You wanted to sit in a Seraph?" Garrus repeated. "Mind if I ask why?"

"I wanted to see if I could learn to fly it, if we all could," Travers explained. "Fucking Spartans can't be the only ones capable of piloting that shit. We could probably do it ten times better. We just needed the chance. I wanted to check out the controls for myself, see if they were really all that hard if the Spartans could figure them out easy enough."

McKay rolled her eyes, but she wasn't as angry this time. More frustrated than anything. Just a bunch of competitive bullshit she didn't like to deal with. She set him straight quick.

"You're a Drop Trooper, emphasis on the drop. You are not a fighter pilot," she reminded him. "We head in boots first, we don't flip around in space doing barrel-rolls. You have a problem with that, transfer out to the Air Force when we get back to Earth. Otherwise, do your damn job, be happy I don't feel like reprimanding you and stop complaining about what the Spartans get to do in your stead. You're an ODST, act like it."

"Yes, ma'am," he responded. "If you want proof, I took pictures of the controls to study later."

He pulled out his own OSD drive from his pocket and handed it to Garrus.

"I'm dropping this," he assured them all. "Stupid idea anyway. Point is, I wasn't selling grenades to the turkeys."

Garrus looked at the OSD and indeed it did show pictures of the inside of a Seraph. That seemed to clear Travers, but he wasn't off the hook just yet. He still wanted to talk to the other two, Lendon and Fadden. They were still the most suspicious out of the group. Garrus picked Lendon first.

"So where were you?" He asked.

"My bunk, okay," he admitted firmly. "I was tired. Didn't think it was a big deal."

Garrus perched a brow at that. He was pretty quick to change his story. He probably hoped that would be all, but Lendon would have to do better than that to get off. Garrus could tell he was hiding something, it was more subtle than the others, but it was all over his face, all in his tone.

"You were tired and you didn't think to mention that before?" Garrus asked skeptically. "You just wanted a nap. You're just telling us this now?"

"I told you, didn't think it was a big deal," Lendon said shrugging. "I wanted to sleep. Big whoop."

"It's a contradiction of your previous statement," the turian informed him. "Can you prove you were here?"

"I don't take pictures of myself sleeping," Lendon said snorting.

He wasn't cooperating, fine, Garrus didn't need him to. He took another look through the security footage again, this time finding the camera pointed directly at the ODST barracks' entrance. Sure enough they soon saw Lendon enter the room. Fast forwarding about a minute later though, he left with a satchel. Garrus looked to the Sergeant once more. He looked stoic, but the turian could see a bit of sweat running down his forehead.

"What's in the bag, Sergeant?" Garrus asked.

"Nothing," Lendon claimed glowering at the turian.

Garrus glared back. He was done with this, he wanted answers.

"Where's his bunk?" He asked McKay, not taking his eyes off the Sergeant.

McKay pointed to said bunk. The turian moved towards it in an instant. Lendon tried to stop him, but Samara moved in between them both. She stood over Lendon, biotic energy pooling around her. She didn't have to lay a hand on him, the hardened Sergeant just froze. He knew what her powers could do, he'd seen it first hand with Jack.

Garrus soon found the satchel in question in Lendon's footlocker at the base of his bunk. He started rummaging through it, but couldn't find any grenades. That didn't exactly exonerate the Sergeant, but lack of evidence did not help their case. He did find something though, something potentially just as incriminating. Grabbing it in his hands, Garrus pulled out what appeared to be a rope necklace of some kind. Attached to it were several feathers and quills of varying colors and lengths. All clearly Jackal in origin. Garrus looked to Lendon, but he had no reaction. McKay was a different story, as she had a very simple demand that almost boiled over to rage.

"The hell is this?!"

* * *

AN: Tis the season for giving, so why not another chapter? I managed to get to a point in my writing where I was comfortable publishing this. I do hope you've enjoyed the mystery so far and are asking a few questions yourselves. What is this all leading to? Expect the answers in due course. I have a few more chapters to complete first, but trust me, you're going to love where this is headed.

Anyway, please let me know your thoughts, check out the profile for a link to mine and do come back next time dear readers for the conclusion to this two part mystery.


	10. The Lies

**Chapter Nine: The Lies**

 _I Always Tell the Truth, Even when I Lie._

 _-Tony "Scarface" Montana_

" _For the record, I wouldn't be doing all this if we weren't friends,"_ Tali told Kasumi through the vid-link on her omni-tool. _"I was just getting the Engineer Triplets acquainted with our systems in preparation for the Slipspace project."_

"I know, and I'm sorry again," Kasumi assured. "But this is important, I wouldn't ask otherwise."

" _It's also bending the rules,"_ Tali reminded her. _"Using one of the Engineers to help compile relevant security data is one thing. This is a secure direct feed from the Serpent's computer to ours through one of them. They're still on our ship, but it's a little much."_

"Holland will be more than happy to know we got rid of all the Pirate Spies aboard when this is over," Kasumi assured her. "I'm sure he'll make an exception. Now what did you find?"

They were still in the bar, which had somewhat cleared out. It had been about an hour or so now, which was a testament to Tali's ability, she had gotten back to her pretty quick. Kasumi had still ordered a few shots of ichor to calm her nerves during the wait. Hopefully it would be worth it. From the way Tali looked, already frantically typing in commands, they had something to work with.

" _First off, we believe we found out how they got through Retz's security,"_ she began _"There was a glitch programmed into the system intentionally. It forced a playback loop of about twenty seconds upon a direct input command. We searched the system, found out it had been activated during the fight on the Hollow. That's when the assassins must've gotten on board."_

"So someone was already aboard then?" Taq reasoned. "Retz was right to suspect there was at least one Syndicate crony on the _Chorka_ before they seized it."

" _Seems like it,"_ Tale confirmed. _"The glitch was installed before anyone even knew about Taq though or that she was coming, the same day the Chorka was seized. I imagine if we went through the code on the Chorka we'd find a similar glitch. The Covenant had a Syndicate problem, we caught it and that left us vulnerable."_

At least they could close that hole for any future possible infiltration. Good bit of news they badly needed, as far as Kasumi was concerned. Tali wasn't done though.

" _There was also something else though, a darknet of sorts, beneath the main code,"_ she explained. _"It looks like it has been here for a while. I can't say for sure, but it might be for covert internal transmissions. It's probably how your assassins have been able to communicate without being detected. And if this is older than just a week or so, it's possible you had a deep cover agent aboard at some time in the past. Maybe you still do."_

That was disconcerting, she didn't want to think that they had more than the expected number of agents aboard with them. She looked to Retz, trying to see if he would give away any thoughts on the possibility. He seemed enthused at the idea at least."

"It's hard to think someone would go unnoticed by me for that long," he said shrugging. "It could've been someone aboard during Dread Feather's days. This was a ship in his fleet after all. He had to have a few Syndicate agents working with him."

" _Just consider it a possibility,"_ Tali cautioned. _"I tried to have DOT monitor the darknet connection, but there's nothing going on. We can't even pick up any latent data, it's all been deleted. I don't think they're using it anymore. They probably suspect that their grenade happy friend has made it too risky to talk on it. Any meeting now will be in person, but I doubt out in public. And if they're aware of the security on your ship like I think they are, it won't be easy to find them on cameras. That and, no offense, every Jackal on this footage looks a little suspicious in some way. It's hard to really pick out any behavior that really stands out."_

That was a problem Kasumi hadn't thought of. A ship full of criminals meant there were more than a few secrets at stake. There were almost certainly a few shady characters doing things they didn't want others to know about. They couldn't all be assassins or they'd just have jumped Taq right now. To his credit, Retz seemed to agree.

"No offense taken," he said rather casually. "It's common knowledge that every pirate has something to hide, a secret they keep. Side deals between crew, contraband they don't want to share, it's expected. Why don't we just focus on the one kig-yar who's secret we know. Joc, the grenade assassin, did you find him in the footage?"

" _Right where your bartender friend said he'd be,"_ Tali replied, typing a few commands off to the side. _"DOT was able to pick him out of the crowd through her facial recognition subroutine. Not that she needed to try too hard, he did not seem to care about who saw him that night."_

She ran the footage, no sound, but Kasumi could clearly see their now dead assassin making a nuissance of himself. He kept pushing and shoving, barking at anyone who looked at him, almost like he was looking for an excuse that no one gave him. Which only seemed to make me angrier. He left the bar shortly after speaking to Row, probably on his way to try to kill Taq.

"Can you back track him?" Kasumi asked. "Find out where he was prior to all that?"

" _Way ahead of you, Kas,"_ Tali replied, almost giggling as she spoke. _"He was in a mood all night. If your theory is right, he must've had the falling out with his friends a short while after the raid on the Coil Factory. He was not being careful in avoiding the cameras. There's a lot of corridor chasing I'll spare you, DOT and I eventually found the good stuff. Here, rec-room, just before movie night started."_

Joc was at a small table playing a card game of some sort with a bunch of other Jackals. As one of the members cashed out he passed Joc discreetly. Moments later, Joc cashed out too and left. Tali rewinded the footage a few times, focusing on the moment the first Jackal got up and left. The footage wasn't perfect and you couldn't enhance it that much if you tried. However, Tali did zoom in closer and closer, trying to get them to see the answer for themselves. Eventually, Kasumi spotted it. The first Jackal's hand moved slightly into Joc's satchel and as he did so, it looked like he was clutching something.

"He put something in there," Kasumi concluded. "The grenade."

" _Joc put down a few credit chips to double his bid and lost the hand just before that happened,"_ Tali added. _"Lost the hand to the Jackal who left seconds later mind you. Could be a buy or a signal. Either way, the hand off was probably made there. That pirate gave him the grenade."_

"Can you give us his name?" Taq asked, hunching over on her stool at the holoscreen.

" _I can give you his face, I followed him out,"_ Tali responded. _"Other than that, I don't know his name. Recognition doesn't have a match. It's something to go on at least. I'm uploading it to you now. And Kasumi, watch yourself out there. I've had people like this hunting me once. They are not always what they appear. Be careful."_

"No worries, Hood Buddy,"Kasumi said grinning. "It's me you're talking to. We almost got this in the bag. I can feel it."

Tali's concern didn't vanish, instead she just offered one last bit of advice as the upload of the picture completely.

" _Just don't end up in a bag yourself."_

* * *

Lendon remained silent, even as Garrus kept holding the little necklace of quills and feathers up for all to see. McKay had pulled him out into the middle of the room, where everyone was now staring at him. The Lieutenant herself was pacing around him, barely looking at him as she did.

"Sergeant Lendon," she finally spoke in a harsh tone. "Are you aware of UNSC policy concerning battle trophies?"

"They are considered contraband, ma'am," Lendon replied thusly.

"What does the Marine charter consider a battle trophy?" McKay pressed further.

"Specialized weapons that have not been secured, articles of enemy clothing or uniforms, enemy insignias, literature, any means of entertainment or leisure items in fact, alcohol being one of them, narcotics another..."

McKay got into his face, stopping his stoic listing in it's tracks.

"What specifically is considered a battle trophy that is prohibited by the Marine charter from being taken off enemy personnel by a Marine's own discretion?" She asked, gritting her teeth as she spoke.

"Body parts, ma'am," Lendon admitted, unable to delay any longer.

"What counts as a body part?" She asked scowling. "And skip the bullshit this time."

Lendon sighed defeated, unable to hold it back any longer.

"Scalps, hair, anything organically on the enemy's person such as feathers."

"And what is that?" McKay demanded to know, pointing to the necklace.

Lendon glared back.

"Feathers and quills from Jackals, ma'am," he admitted. "Jackals I killed. I would've picked fingers, but they would've started to smell."

"Well thank you for not stinking up the barracks, Sergeant Lendon," McKay responded sardonically. "I'm sure we all appreciate it."

McKay moved away, but even if she was done, Lendon wasn't.

"You can't judge me on this, I had a right to this," he declared.

"No Marine or ODST has the right to desecrate the dead, regardless of what kind of dead," McKay informed him growling. "We cannot have people just ripping off pieces of the enemy for their own enjoyment. It invites reprisals, it places a greater target on all ODSTs and it is generally unbecoming of us as Drop Troopers. We are not grave robbers, we are soldiers and you are supposed to act like a soldier even in the face of an enemy as monstrous as the Covenant. You think just because it isn't human scalps this is somehow okay?"

"Those damn turkeys killed my men, ma'am," Lendon shouted back. "Popped up out of fucking nowhere from the dead and slaughtered us like fucking animals! They cackled while they did it! Every! Last! One of them! They owed me! Every fucking one of them owed me! So whenever I had the chance I took it. You can't judge me for that, no one here can!"

McKay kept her eyes locked on Lendon for his entire outburst. Garrus just kept his eyes on her. To normal people she'd probably just look stoic and unfeeling, like she didn't care. He could see otherwise, she did care. She was listening very intently, you could see her eyes quiver as she spoke, mouth upturn so she could bite her lip. McKay understood Lendon's thought process, but it didn't change anything.

"I have to inform Holland about this," she informed him succinctly. "My hands are tied, there's nothing I can do."

"The Major wouldn't have reported jack," Lendon claimed.

"Did he know?" Garrus inquisitively asked.

"He suspected, he never made a big deal about it," Lendon admitted.

McKay just shook her head.

"I'm not Silva, as you all like to remind me," she stated. "This is no longer tolerated and unless you explain to me where the other grenades are there are going to be even harsher repercussions for this."

Lendon's eyes grew wide and his head shot up to attention in shock.

"What? No! That necklace means nothing! I did not take those grenades!" He declared vehemently. "I just came back to my bunk to look at it! I swear!"

"You clearly don't like the Jackals, but that gives you more motivation, not less," Garrus explained. "Giving them explosives to cause havoc with would strain already tense relations. It would potentially give you the excuse to bring them to heel. To get some payback for what they did to your squad."

"I may not like those bastards, but I wouldn't do this!" Lendon argued. "I'd be putting people's lives at risk if I was! What if they used it on Marines at some point? You think I'd want that? That I'm so desperate for payback I'd put human lives on the line just to kill some Jackals in the aftermath? Are you nuts?"

"Unless you knew that the grenade was intended for another Jackal," Samara suggested. "In your mind, your conscience would be clear. The Jackals would cause an incident with a human weapon, accusations that they stole a grenade would be made, it would strain tensions further..."

"And eventually another Marine or Soldier or Trooper would be caught in the crossfire," Lendon countered. "No, I wouldn't do it. If I wanted payback that badly I could just wait. The Jackals will fuck us over on their own terms, I don't need to help them along."

Garrus kept looking for Lendon to crack, but nothing seemed to suggest he was trying to weasel his way out of this. He was stressed, he was angry, he was pissed off at being accused of something, but he also didn't seem to be looking for excuses. When he spoke, he meant it, that much was clear in the tone. It wouldn't clear him, but it did raise doubts.

"There's only two ways out of this Lendon," McKay informed the Sergeant. "Either tell us where the grenades are or give us some proof that exonerates you. Otherwise, you're in the brig for however long Holland and Haverson decide."

"What do you want me to say?" Lendon angrily asked in return. "I told you, I came to the bunk to look at my trophies in private. Put me in the brig for that if you want, stick me on maintenance duty, bust me down a rank if you have to, but I did not take those grenades!"

"Why don't we just forget finding them anyway?" Fadden suddenly spoke up. "If an ODST did take them, he'd probably have ditched them by now. Probably out into space. You'd never find them."

Garrus turned his gaze on Fadden now, his detective instinct going off hard. That was a very specific statement the Corporal had just made.

"You keep speaking up and trying to get us to drop this a lot," he said with an accusatory glare. "It's becoming a bit routine at this point. Don't think we've forgotten your whereabouts aren't exactly clear either."

"Then let's set the record straight, I didn't stay in the mess because I didn't want to waste too much time there," Fadden answered diligently. "I finished what I was eating and went straight to my bunk to get some shuteye. I didn't see what Lendon was doing when I got there, but I guess I just wasn't paying attention."

Garrus glared, not particularly convinced by the story. However, before he could try to poke holes in it, someone else did. The last person Garrus expected to actually, Sergeant Lendon.

"Straight to the bunks?" He asked, confused as he spoke. "No, I went straight there. I went out the mess hall, down and to the right, back to the barracks. I looked back, you were going left."

Fadden looked a bit out of sorts from that response, his stance shifting slightly.

"Um, wait, I may have remembered wrong, I think I took a longer route," he said. "Get some exercise."

"You didn't want to waste time so you left the mess early... to jog around the ship a bit?" Garrus asked, not at all convinced in the slightest by that story.

As the wheels in Fadden's head spun about, Garrus turned to McKay.

"What's left of that corridor off the mess hall?" He asked.

"An elevator that goes straight to the hangar if I'm not mistaken," McKay recalled. "One that lets off very close to where the _Serpent_ is docked."

Fadden shifted slightly, moving slightly towards his bunk. His hand was kneading itself nervously as he did. Samara didn't let him get far, forcing herself past him. Fadden and the rest of the unit watched as the asari ripped open his footlocker, then pulled off the mattress, finally she broke open a storage compartment under the bed. She rummaged around in it before knocking on the bottom, it sounded slightly off. Furiously, she tore off the floor of the compartment and started pulling out extra chocolate bars, a few lewd magazines and then finally, she stood up and presented the most damning object of all right in Fadden's face. In her hands was a single grenade.

Everyone's eyes turned from the explosive to Fadden in an instant. Lendon looked almost as incensed as McKay now. Garrus kept his stoic expression as the Corporal's face turned crestfallen.

"Guess you weren't smart enough to follow your own advice, huh?" Garrus asked.

Fadden couldn't respond, Samara had already grabbed him by the collar and forced him up against one of the bunk posts. She held him there, his legs dangling in the air as her cold eyes bored into him.

"Explain," she demanded sternly. "Now."

"What's there to explain?" He asked, almost defeated. "I bet you've all got a good idea what this was about."

"Would be nice to know the whys, Corporal," Garrus informed him, still keeping a cool demeanor while everyone else looked enraged.

Fadden sighed, no sense in continuing the lie apparently.

"I found out about some Jackal looking for frag grenades," he explained. "Random chance really, stopped me in the corridor, wondered if I had access to the armory. I was going to brush him off, but I figured this could be a good opportunity. I could get them off our backs for good, break the camel's back after all the shit they pulled."

"Why not just report it in then?" Garrus asked.

"Cause then only that turkey would probably get in trouble," Fadden explained scowling. "I wanted them all to take the blame. So I decided I'd take him up on the offer. When the mission to that asteroid field came up I knew it was my chance. I knew Paul was lax on rationing rules and wasn't the best at keeping count of stuff. I'd get extra grenades, give them to the Jackal after the mission and then wait a little. I held onto one to plant somewhere in that scuzzy ship of theirs later. I figured I had a day or two before Paul realized something was off or the Jackals pulled something stupid with the ordinance. More than enough time to set things in order. I'd get the last grenade on their ship, put it in some random bird's compartment and with any luck it would be enough to set Holland against this stupid alliance already."

Fadden had been right, they had more or less guessed the plan correctly.

"All that just to discredit the Jackals?" McKay cut in, anger boiling in her voice.

"Why wait for the bastards to turn on us?" Fadden asked in return. "They're going to do it sooner or later, let's not kid ourselves. We might as well just force the issue. We should be getting back to Earth, not palling around with space pirates! That's where the real fight is, we're wasting time here!"

"But you didn't count on having enough time yourself," Garrus noted, glaring as he spoke. "A Jackal used one of the grenades early against another of their kind. You didn't count on this happening a few hours after you set it in motion, so you didn't have time to ditch the evidence before it was too late. You had already put it with your secret stash and the next time you showed up here, it was during our investigation. So you needed to convince us that we were barking up the wrong tree. You needed us gone so you could find time to ditch the final grenade."

"I didn't think they were that explosion happy," Fadden admitted. "But it proves my point, they want to kill each other more than us! How can you trust those kinds of allies?"

"You handed grenades used in an assassination plot against a member of this flotilla," Samara informed him. "A plot hatched by stowaways from the Hollow. Had they succeeded they would have dangerous intelligence in their hands. And all because you wanted to get back to Earth faster?"

Fadden raised up his hands suddenly.

"I did not know anything about that, I didn't ask the Jackal questions," he explained. "I just got him the grenades and left. Hell I only took the payment to keep him from being suspicious about my motives. I didn't do it to put anyone's lives at risk, I did it so we could get back to the real fight instead of helping these dumb turkeys any longer."

"And you were gonna let me take the fall?" Lendon asked, his anger now directed fully at him. "What was your plan? Plant the grenade on me to cover your ass?"

"I swear, I was going to throw it out the airlock and call the whole thing off!" Fadden insisted. "It's why I didn't try to make up a story to frame you, Sarge. I wanted this to get dropped!"

"Well it's sticking, Corporal," McKay informed him. "And if you don't want to be stuck in the brig for a very long time for this, or worse, court-martialed and shot, you will tell us where the other grenade is!"

"I gave it to the Jackal!" Fadden shouted frantically. "I gave it to him! Maybe he still has it, maybe he sold it, I don't know! But he was the last one I saw with it!"

At that moment, Garrus got a ping on his omni-tool. He opened it up and saw the image on the screen sent from Kasumi. With a simple grin he showed the image to Fadden.

"This him?" He asked.

After squinting a bit, Fadden slowly nodded. That was the last bit they needed to confirm this. Well, second to last bit, Garrus still had one more thing to demand of the Corporal.

"Give me his name."

* * *

"Kec, I presume, cleaning up the tables today?"

The scruffy looking Jackal with dirty quills and peeling scales looked up to Retz, Kasumi and Taq all currently standing over him. He was sitting at a gambling table in the Rec-Room shuffling cards for the next hand in their little game. Kec had the most chips on his side of course, but his competitors weren't giving up. There were other games being played at the moment as well, not just cards. various wheels, slots and even a few vid-related games. Those not playing, were busy eating or drinking or just talking. The radio was currently playing yet another song from Boz's playlist. This time it was an old song called "Keelhauled" from a band that was right up the crew of the _Fallen Serpent's_ alley, Alestorm.

"Retz, what a surprise to see you down here with us wretches," Kec greeted. "Good to finally meet you, how are you?"

"Dealing with things, first mate's job is never done," Retz informed him, smiling graciously as he spoke. "Can you deal me in?"

Retz sat down before Kec could agree to it, not that he could really say no to the first mate. Kec just shrugged and started dealing the cards, handing Retz his in turn with the others. Retz picked them up and turned them over, nodding favorably as he did.

"This could be interesting," he said casually, his eyes then turning to Kec again. "So, how's business?"

"What do you mean?" Kec asked, slightly laughing. "My business is your business. That's the point of a crew. I'm still doing great at the gambling thing if that's what you mean, but-"

"I mean your other business," Retz informed him. "Contraband to be precise. From what I understand, you've had a very lucrative side venture with us. Apparently, you get a lot of extra luxuries thrown your way. Luxuries you like to pass on."

Retz put down a few credit chips in front of him as Kec looked about confused.

"Well, yeah, but quite a few of us have those," he explained as he put forward his own bet. "I mean, it's standard, right? Shipmaster takes the biggest cut from plunder, it's up to us to seed our own profit where we can. And as long as it doesn't cut into Zek's percent..."

"It is allowed, I'm very hands off on it most of the time," Retz confirmed, watching as Kec put down a few more cards. "However, I'm always concerned when people branch out."

"Branch out?" Kec questioned, placing the last card of the current deal down. "I... don't follow."

Retz just doubled his current bet.

"It's very simple," he explained. "When someone decides to undertake deals that are a little bit outside their regular comfort zone, well, then we get concerned. You know the policy about how we view certain jobs. When they get beyond the regular contraband and into smuggling territory, it becomes disconcerting to us."

Kec matched Retz's bet, but more reluctant this time.

"I'm not really sure I know what you mean by smuggling," he stated.

"It's smuggling when it's not internal," Retz clarified. "When it's ship to ship. More specifically when it involves things that are out of the ordinary. That's been a potential worry of mine lately, what with us being so close to the humans and all."

"I suppose you always have to be on the lookout for anyone who might be doing stuff like that these days," Kec admitted, putting down the next card on the table. "Could be a problem, in more ways than one."

"Yes, it would," Retz said, casually shuffling his own cards about as while staring at Kec.

Kec was a lot less comfortable now, shifting in his seat, his shoulders twitchy. Retz could make out a little bit of sweat. It was clear he didn't like where this was going.

"Have you met Taq?" Retz asked, signaling to the frowning female Jackal beside him. "She's an expert on the Forerunners, you know. Rare for a kig-yar."

"Yeah, I heard she was on-board, I guess," Kec said, trying not to look at her.

Retz's gaze steeled on Kec now.

"She recently just escaped an explosion of some kind in her own room," he told the gambling pirate. "Very close, possible foul play."

"Can't imagine who'd try to do that," Kec said, chuckling nervously. "I mean, seems rather excessive. A murder by explosion ain't exactly subtle, especially on a ship. I don't know anyone who'd be that stupid."

"Do you now?" Retz asked, leering his face at him.

Kec backed off a bit, now entirely unhinged by this encounter. He placed a small bet and Retz followed suit, never taking his eyes off Kec. He then spoke to the other gamblers.

"You two are folding," he stated. "Go, now."

The other two left, taking their earnings and leaving without asking why. Now it was just Retz at the table, with Kasumi and Taq at his back with Kec facing all three of them.

"Zek is still rather fond of Taq despite her rejection of him," Retz continued. "I respect her decision, as I'm her friend as well. So they're both pretty unhappy about this situation. I hate seeing my friends unhappy, Kec. You understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kec said gulping.

"So you understand why this must be resolved then," Retz said.

"Yeah, I do," Kec admitted.

Retz just suddenly grinned brightly.

"Good," he said cheerfully. "Keep dealing."

Kec slowly placed the last card down on the table, which would end the hand. As he did, placing the card in it's final slot, Retz slammed his cards on the table. He grabbed at Kec's dealing arm, holding it in place as he pulled out a small shard knife and stabbed it into Kec's hand, pinning it to the table.

"Look at that," Retz said grinning, as Kec kept screaming. "Seems I just won this hand. So much for your winning streak."

He then climbed on top of the table, grabbed Kec's beak and slammed it into the table as well, sending chips and cards flying everywhere. Kec kept struggling but it was useless, Retz had him completely at his mercy. While he was stuck forcibly kissing the table, Kasumi moved over to Kec's satchel and dug around for a bit. She soon produced the other missing grenade, plopping it in front of Kec's eye.

"My, my, where did you get that?" Retz asked.

"Wait, wait," Kec tried to squeak out through the pain. "Just hear me out-"

"Let's try not to deny this," Retz informed him, sounding almost bored as he did. "A human identified you as the kig-yar he gave this frag to. I have footage of you putting one of said frags into Taq's would-be killer's bag. I just found this one on your person, so let's skip to the chase. Why the hell did you think this was a good idea? That I wouldn't catch on? Even if you didn't end up selling to Syndicate agents of all things?"

"I didn't know he was Syndicate!" Kec tried to screech. "I swear! It sounded like he had a score to settle with his asshole friends! I didn't think he was a spy for the Queens!"

"You not thinking almost got me killed, dipshit!" Taq screamed at him.

"I swear on my mother's grave, I'm seriously sorry about that!" Kec screamed pleadingly. "I just wanted some extra credits! When the little shithead approached me his offer just seemed too damn good to pass up! So I found some stupid pissed off ODST with an axe to grind! Someone who wouldn't give a shit about breaking a few rules! I overheard that Corporal bitching about how he wanted to go home and crap! Figured he'd be easy to con!"

"Correction," Retz said, grabbing at the hilt of the shard dagger stuck in Kec's hand. "You thought it would be easy to con me! You start pulling arms deals behind my back without my permission and you're conning me!"

Retz jiggled the shard dagger furiously, eliciting more screams of pain from Kec.

"I didn't know he was after the Shipmaster's Ex! I swear I didn't fucking know!" Kec cried in anguish. "I thought I'd have time to get the grenade off the ship, make it look like it was misplaced! Then I'd send a tip about how the dumb human had raided the armory to that Holland guy and get him in trouble! We'd screw one of those asshole Drop Troopers and I'd make a profit! Everyone would come out a winner!"

Retz lifted Kec's head by the beak and slammed it back down on the table. He then stepped on it with his foot, pressing harder into it than before.

"How's that winning turning out for you, Kec?" Retz asked gravely.

"I'll make it up to you, I swear!" Kec struggled to declare.

"Oh you will, Kec," Retz assured him "You most certainly will."

Retz pulled the shard dagger out of Kec's hand and then kicked the gambling smuggler onto his back. He landed in a heap with Retz still glaring down at him from the table proper.

"You're going to contact the assassins over their darknet connection," Retz explained. "I imagine that's how you gave instructions for the drop earlier. You're going to tell them you have another grenade for them, this one. We're going to lie in wait and catch them."

"But what if they kill me to cover up loose ends?" Kec asked.

"It will be a lot quicker than the airlock, I promise you that," Retz informed him.

He kicked the grenade off the table and onto Kec proper. The weasely bird caught in his hands as Retz glowered at him.

"Set the drop for cargo hold six," he ordered. "With any luck they'll take the bait. Then we can take them all down easily. Be quick about it or it's the other hand next."

Kec did as ordered and opened up his communicator. While he made the call, Retz jumped down from the table and moved away. Retz then spoke up a lot louder so the whole room could hear.

"Cards were marked," he claimed. "Don't bother playing with him anymore people."

The rest of the room had slowly gotten back to their own business, not really paying much attention anymore. Probably for their own sakes. Kasumi didn't blame them. She had never seen Retz that angry, ever.

"Little harsh weren't we?" She asked him.

"He felt he could get one over me," Retz replied. "Simple as that."

"I get it, but he's not one of the assassins," Kasumi informed him. "We had him dead to rights, we didn't need all that. Plus, one of the assassins could've seen it all."

Retz just groaned shaking his head.

"We needed to be sure he wasn't Syndicate," Retz explained whispering. "He's another new arrival from off the _Chorka_ , we couldn't take the risk. The fact he cried like an idiot fledgling proved he wasn't one of them. As for them being in this room with us, unlikely. If they knew who he was and were watching him then he'd be dead by now, a loose end to tie up. Try to understand, Ms. Goto, these people might be fractured but they are not easily broken individually. They seep into crews, they assimilate themselves and they execute their plans with great proficiency."

Retz took a short breath before, catching himself before he rambled on further.

"There was a pirate leader once," he explained. "Zek and I were trying to set up a deal with him. Things seemed to be going well. We go to sleep the night of the deal, the next day he's marooned on a planet to die and his first mate has taken over. It wasn't simple mutiny though, it was a takeover. We were told to leave and, before long, the new Shipmaster had allowed his small clan be absorbed by one of the Syndicate Fleets. The old Shipmaster had refused their offer so they activated their man aboard his ship. A man who had been with that shipmaster for years, one of his closest friends. Turned on him, as if by the flick of a switch."

It was a pretty grim tale to be sure. Kasumi tried to think how that Pirate must've felt when his best friend had suddenly turned on him out of nowhere. Was it any wonder the Syndicate seemed to breed paranoia? And Retz, it was more personal.

"These people have now infiltrated my crew, Zek's crew, my friend's ship," he reiterated sternly. "I will not allow this to go further. I'm ending it. Whatever means necessary, no matter what I have to do, I'm protecting this ship. One pathetic smuggling low-life is an easy price to pay."

Kasumi got his drift in an instant.

"You think they're going to kill him," she reasoned. "Like he thinks they are."

"And I don't care," Retz answered firmly. "This is how pirates punish those who transgress. No bullshit trials, no stupid plea bargains, no slackjawed jury or mindless lawyers. He fucked up, he pays the price. He lives or dies at the discretion of the people he decided to trust more than the crew that took him in. Simple as that."

Harsh? Cruel? Maybe. Kasumi honestly wasn't in a place to judge. It was their way after all. Besides, it sounded like this was the fastest way to get these guys out of hiding. Retz was right about one thing, they did need to end this and fast.

* * *

The space they set up for their stakeout was not exactly roomy, but it gave them a pretty good view of the intended meeting. Kec was already there, not looking all that confident or collected as he usually was. It did not make Kasumi confident in his chances. Worse, it did gave her a few new concerns of how this would go down.

"What if they suspect something is off?" Kasumi asked Retz. "The way he's acting might spook them."

"Better not," Taq snorted. "I got questions for these assholes, also maybe one or two severe beatings."

"Ladies, do calm yourselves," Retz whispered. "They will be here. If nothing else to get another grenade, or tie off a loose end in Kec. Hell, they could already be here, scoping things out, planning."

That did not make Kasumi feel better at all. Her eyes suddenly darted to every shadow, searching for movement among the containers or the sound of feet running about. She was suddenly keenly aware of how a lot of her marks had felt in the past. Not a great feeling for a thief to have, being on the receiving end of a sneaky foe was not something she enjoyed.

"What exactly is our plan here?" Kasumi questioned Retz. "There's seven or so of them and three of us. Are we just going to engage them by ourselves?"

"It depends on what they do," Retz stoically explained. "I doubt they'll all show up together. Too much manpower for a simple buy like that. One guy, maybe two. If we're lucky they'll risk the two. We can eliminate one, take the other alive and question him."

That made Kasumi feel a bit better. They could be down to five assassins at the end of this. Way better than seven. Didn't make this nerve-wracking waiting any less tense. She kept her hand ready on her Kassa Locust as she watched Kec. He was now pacing back and forth, his eyes also searching the shadows. The only thing that broke her concentration on the little smuggler was Retz speaking again.

"I lied before."

Kasumi turned, a bit confused at the Jackal's word. Not because him lying was a surprise, but because he was just outright admitting it out of the blue.

"I think you need to be more specific," she informed him.

"About when we first ran into Syndicate Agents," he clarified distantly. "It wasn't with that Casino job. It was before I even met Zek actually, way before."

That had not been the admission she was expecting and it still felt out of the blue. It didn't mean she was uninterested to hear the real story though.

"So when did you first run into them?" She asked earnestly.

"Remember when I told you I've been at this for a long time?" The Jackal responded. "It was all the way back then. I was working for a well-known credit lender, who also dabbled a little in the Ichor moonshine business on the side. I was one of his runners, he used kids mostly because they went unnoticed. He never treated us bad though, he was a good man, fair more or less. I made a lot of good friends among the other smuggling kids too. One of them was named Zert, sly customer, knew his way around the city. Had been there longer than even me. Collecting payments, keeping track of booze shipments, he had his act together. Me, him, our employer, we were like a small tight knit family."

Kasumi now how this ended before Retz even said anything. Just that last sentence was enough for her. She had heard this one too many times. You never said that when a story ended well.

"One night," Retz continued gravely. "We were sitting down. Enjoying ourselves, nice meal, we did it at that time, every day of the week. We had just gotten our biggest shipment of Ichor out, we were celebrating. The boss was congratulating us both, we were his best people he said. He couldn't have been more prouder of us, he said. We were... we were like the sons he never had. His words exactly."

Retz paused in thought, his eyes looking down crestfallen and sad. Just a while before she had seen him at his angriest, now she was seeing Retz at probably his most emotionally vulnerable state yet. He looked in absolute pain just remembering things.

"What happened, Retz?" Taq asked, looking even more concerned than Kasumi did.

"Zert grabbed a knife out of nowhere," Retz replied coldly. "Jammed it right into the boss' neck. Then, as he lay on the ground suffocating in his own blood, trying to ask why, Zert shot him point blank with a plasma pistol. I had fallen to the floor in shock, Zert was standing over me, his eyes cold and dead. I thought I was next, but he turned away. He left like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. Just left me there, with the dead man I considered a friend. I found out later that it was an execution started by the Syndicate. They had positioned someone else to take over the whole smuggling business, make it part of a larger ring. Also, clear up some debts they had no intention of paying. I suppose my employer should've reconsidered taking some Syndicate Shipmasters as clients. I left as soon as the transition started, I needed a new venture and... that place wasn't home anymore after that. Never saw Zert again. My best friend, an agent for the Syndicate the whole time and I never suspected."

It was only now Kasumi felt she understood the real reason behind Retz's fears. It wasn't any of that stuff from before, it was this. The thought of being tricked, of being lied to by someone he trusted. This wasn't ego, it was personal, it was about not being a victim again. She could understand that, in every way she could understand.

"I didn't tell you this because I don't like remembering it," Retz explained. "That and I didn't want to scare you too much. The idea that the Syndicate would use children is at times hard for some people to believe. But it's the reality, they breed loyalty young."

"I get it," Kasumi assured him. "But why tell us this now?"

"You and Taq deserve the truth, I suppose," Retz admitted. "You need to know why I'm in so far on this. I've known these people longer than most. Survived them if you will. It's why Zek put me on this. I know the enemy better than anyone in this case."

"Well, hope you're ready to put all that experience to the test then," Taq spoke up suddenly. "Look's like it's going down."

Looking out from their stakeout point, they could see Kec's attention was now solely focused on something. Emerging from the shadows was a single Jackal, his quills smoothed along his head in three lines. He approached Kec slowly and the two appeared to start talking. It didn't look like things were heated, but Kec still looked uneasy. Soon enough though, he took the grenade out and handed it to the newcomer, confirming he was part of the assassin group. Kasumi readied her Locust and prepared to move in, but Retz held up his arm.

"Wait a second," he told her. "He could have someone watching him."

The Syndicate Agent hung around for a bit, eyeing the grenade. Kec, however, wanted to leave, his feet already moving backwards. He was trying not to be sudden about it, but it was clear the agent already knew what was happening. Kasumi could see the unknown Jackal's hand already going for his weapon. She wouldn't wait anymore, she bolted from their hiding spot, cloak engaged. If Retz tried to stop her she didn't hear him. If he still wanted to catch this guy, he'd follow her.

She rushed to the Agent's flank, passing a series of containers on the assassin's left. She got behind him and then pointed the gun right between his head. That stopped his hand cold.

"You're done playing spy, pal," she told him grimly. "Now we got some questions to ask."

The agent didn't respond, he just eyed her with his bloodshot yellow eyes furiously. She thought for a second she had him, that Retz would be a long shortly to help her wrap this up. But apparently, this Jackal was just a little faster. He turned suddenly, kicking the thief's locust away from him. As the weapon discharged, he elbowed Kasumi in the stomach. At this point, Kec took off running, but that just renewed him as a target in the agent's eyes. He pulled his plasma pistol and fired a series of bolts at the fleeing smuggler. All three caught Kec in the back and he fell to the floor.

"No!" Kasumi yelled in anger.

Grabbing at the plasma pistol suddenly, she ripped it away from the Jackal's grasp and then punched him square in the beak . The agent pulled out a small energy dagger from his belt as Kasumi went for her Carnifex pistol. His blade cut at the back of Kasumi's hand forcing her to drop the weapon, which the Jackal kicked away. Kasumi grabbed the alien's hand as it then came rushing towards her face, inching closer to her eye.

Then a shot rang out and the Jackal stumbled, his knee blown out by a shot. He was now kneeling on the floor in pain, allowing Kasumi to knock the knife out of the Jackal's hand. As soon as she did, Taq rushed out and tackled the Syndicate lackey to the ground.

"Looking for me, asshole!" She screamed in his face, before punching said face repeatedly.

Kasumi had to fight to rip Taq off the battered agent, they still needed him alive of course. Quickly, she forced the downed Jackal over and slapped a pair of energy cuffs on his back. Forcing him to stand, Kasumi looked over to see Retz holding her Locust in one hand.

"I told you to wait," he said as he handed her Locust back to her.

"I was trying to keep Kec alive," Kasumi explained, taking her gun back. "I get your thing about pirate justice, but I wasn't going to let someone die if I could help it."

"Lot of good that did it seems," Retz answered coldly. "But the end result is the same. We have our man."

Retz moved over and grabbed the agent's beak hard.

"You're going to start singing, friend," he assured him. "Very soon in fact."

"Bite me," the Syndicate stooge replied.

"I'd rather not, I don't know where you've been," Retz replied sardonically, before turning to Kasumi. "We should take him some place a lot more secure than this ship."

"The _Normandy_ would be perfect," Kasumi assured him. "We can give him to Miranda. She can get anyone to talk."

Retz nodded in agreement and then turned back to their captive.

"You hear that friend?" Retz asked, his voice dripping with a mocking tone. "You're going to get a tour of the infamous _Normandy_. Isn't that a rare pleasure indeed?"

He started to force the captured agent to move. Kasumi and Taq followed, but the thief momentarily stopped. She looked around for her Carnifex, but didn't see it anywhere. She would've looked longer, but there was no time to worry about a loose gun. She'd come back for it later, once their prisoner was secured and they had found out where his friends were hiding.

* * *

It didn't take long to get off the _Serpent_ and begin the walk to the _Normandy._ The giant hangar made it a bit of a trek. Retz hung back slightly with Taq while Kasumi kept her grip on the Syndicate agent's shoulder. He was strangely quiet the whole way, his eyes locked straight ahead with scowling beak glowering at everything. Kasumi hadn't expected him to be a big conversationalist given the circumstances, but she at least expected some kind of speech. An attempt to get her to turn maybe? Something to rile her up so she'd make a mistake? Why was he so damn quiet?

Eventually the silence became too much for her to stand. If he wouldn't say anything, she would. She didn't even care if he didn't talk back, she just wanted someone to say something.

"Gotta admit, pretty impressive you got this far," she told him plainly. "If your friend hadn't been so stupid and jumped the gun, well, we wouldn't have even knew you were here."

The assassin said nothing in response.

"Has to be eating you up, huh?" She asked him mockingly. "All your little plans down the drain cause one guy couldn't play by the rules. It was only a matter of time before we caught up after that really."

Again, the assassin said nothing. Without any reaction one way or the other, Kasumi decided to keep ribbing.

"Honestly, I can understand," she explained. "I've had plans blow up on me big time, more than once actually. This all has to be pretty embarrassing for you. Simple kill contract, totally ruined. Has to be eating you up."

The assassin looked back for a moment, but still refused to talk.

"We're going to find your friends, you know?" she warned him, glaring as she did. "It's pretty much over. Miranda is going to get it out of you eventually, trust me. You could just spare us all that and tell us everything we want to know. What do you have left to lose really?"

The assassin looked back ahead and for a moment, Kasumi thought he was going to keep his vow of silence. He didn't though, not this time.

"This isn't over," he told her, his voice monotone. "The Op isn't over until we've succeeded or we're all dead. Simple as that."

"You're really that loyal to the whole mission?" Kasumi asked bewildered. "I get it, we're talking about Forerunner artifacts and all that, but I don't understand one thing. What do you care? What's all this to you? You Jackals are only loyal to yourselves at the end of the day. You're not going to try and save your skin at all?"

"You don't understand anything, human," the agent declared. "How could you? Hell, you don't even really get the why. I have no reason to save my skin, I'm not at that point yet. None of us are. You think we're cracking, but it's not that simple. It never is."

Now Kasumi really was confused.

"Let me get this straight," she said, trying to properly register the Jackal's viewpoint. "You're choosing not to talk, but it's still an option? You're loyal to the mission until you decide it's gone south?"

"I'm not loyal to the mission," the agent declared. "I'm loyal to the code. And right now, it's not good business to talk to you about anything. You have nothing."

"We have you," Kasumi reminded him.

"Think what you want," the assassin snorted. "It makes no difference."

The _Normandy_ came into view about a minute later. They were practically on the door step. The cargo hold was closed, but it would just take a minute to contact Joker and he'd get it open for them. Kasumi opened her omni-tool and prepared to do just that. However, when she tried, she couldn't contact Joker. All she got was a flashing screen that said "no connection." That didn't seem possible, they were so close. Nothing could possibly be interfering with the transmission.

That's when it hit her. Why the Syndicate Assassin claimed they had nothing. She looked to Retz, who was looking around them. He then activated his gauntlets as they kept walking. He already suspected something was wrong. She looked to the shadows herself, trying to see if he had spotted something. She thought she saw something, a shade moving among the upper level, something behind a cargo container or moving beneath a Banshee craft.

They were already here, around them. How? How'd they beat them here? How'd they even get off the _Serpent_? She supposed it didn't matter, as things were about to go down hard. She looked back to Retz, hoping he'd see she was in on it and would try to make a move. Instead she just saw him look suddenly to the prisoner in front of her, his eyes growing wide.

"Crap."

She turned around just in time to see the cuffed assassin slamming his shoulder into her stomach. He then kicked her away before taking off like a bullet. She fell back onto her backside, pulling her Kassa Locust and pointing it at the fleeing assassin. She fired at his legs, trying to take him down without killing him. She wasn't keen on killing someone in cuffs, even if they were still trying to kill her.

Her shots missed the assassin as he ducked into cover. Her bullets were answered with plasma and needles raining down from all around them. Taq rushed to grab the downed thief and pulled her back into cover with her and Retz. His feathers were already frayed out and plasma pistols up. They had just been lucky enough to have a cargo container nearby they could hide behind, because Kasumi could hear every shot hitting their cover non-stop.

"How the hell did they make it off the ship!?" Taq shouted.

"I told you both, even fractured they're dangerous," Retz reasoned. "It's just like the club raid in my story. They couldn't risk their friend talking and they know we're too close now. They're done playing, it's all or nothing now."

"Then things just got easier," Kasumi reasoned. "We move now we can take them all down."

"My thoughts exactly, Ms. Goto," Retz concurred. "Also, duck."

Taq and Kasumi followed Retz's cue, dropping to the floor as plasma fire sailed past them. Retz returned fire, jumping up and using his gauntlets to block the next round of shots.

"Our friend just got his cuffs off," Retz informed them. "Kasumi, take Taq! I'll keep them busy!"

Kasumi nodded and grabbed Taq by the back. The two women ran as Retz kept returning fire. They made a beeline for a parked Pelican, sliding behind it as a couple more needle rounds hit the craft. Taq growled in frustration.

"Fucking Syndicate," she grumbled, pulling out her needler. "I'm killing one before this over, I swear."

"Fine, fine, but stay down just for now," Kasumi told her. "I can even our odds a little. They might got a way scramble my comm, but I still got something they can't counter."

That was when she activated her cloak, causing Taq to look around in shock.

"Hey, wait, don't leave me here by myself!" She pleaded.

"Just keep your head down," Kasumi insisted. "I'll be back when we got fewer problems."

The thief took off, heading around the side of the Pelican. Taq was a smart bird, she wouldn't go out into the open when everyone was gunning for her. You couldn't shoot what you couldn't see though, giving Kasumi a better chance. She made for the position the cuffed Assassin had taken off to, careful to not make much noise as she ran. It didn't take long to run across him. He was hiding behind a small metal box, plasma pistol in hand, firing like mad at Retz's position. He had a friend next to him, armed with a needler.

Within seconds, Kasumi struck. Her omni-blade cut into the needler user's back and he screamed in pain. The former prisoner turned snarling as Kasumi's cloak dropped. He turned his gun on her now.

"Fucking shaved primate bitch!" He screamed, letting off several bolts.

Kasumi blocked the shots with the Jackal's dead friend, who was still impaled on her holographic blade.

"Guess your Op is over after all," she grimly told him.

She let loose with her Locust, cutting him down easily. She deactivated her omni-blade and dove behind the box nearby. That was when rounds started hitting it. Not needles, no shots from a Covenant Rifle. Probably stolen from the _Serpent's_ armory. From the angle of the shots, seemed like it was coming from the upper level of the hangar.

"Well, two down, five to go," she reasoned. "Better than when this started."

A sniper was still a problem. She was a decent shot, but her Locust wasn't cut out for long range. She was really missing her Carnifex at this point. Peeking out, she could see Retz was firing at the upper level himself, trying to get the heat off her. Nice of him, but she could handle this. She pulled out a flashbang and tossed it into the air. It wouldn't reach the sniper, but it didn't have to. The device went off in the air, creating a blinding explosion of light. Retz had already pulled back into cover so he wasn't affected, but everyone else would be blind for a bit.

She stood up and ran, firing randomly at the upper levels. Nothing would connect, but it was all she could do. She got back to the Pelican with minimal return fire. Taq was still there, keeping an eye on the fighting all around them. She turned, almost pulling the trigger on her needler when Kasumi rounded the Pelican.

"Five left to go," she reported. "We got this, Taq, don't worry."

"Me? Worry?" Taq laughed nervously. "Nah, nah, I'm fine. Totally fine, honest."

That's when the Pelican came under fire. More Covenant Rifle rounds from the sound of it. Someone wasn't as blind as she thought and had tracked her back. The shots were hitting the back engine, so it was probably from a higher level to. She looked out of cover to see the shooter, kneeling down on a landing. She fired a few shots from her Locust at him. He suddenly rolled off the side as the fire came in, but he wasn't hit. Kasumi could tell by the way he turned. She wasn't surprised to see him get right back up and start firing again.

She sprayed out a wall of bullets, the assassin tucking and rolling behind a metal box. He then began to push his cover, blindly firing as he moved forward. Kasumi fired several bullets in return as he crept closer. She hoped one shot would hit him in the hand. Taq, however, was done. She rushed out of cover while the assassin was still busy firing on Kasumi.

Taq jumped on top of a Warthog parked near the Pelican, giving her just enough of an angle on the assassin. She fired her Needler right into the the assassin, hitting him with several pink slivers before he could turn his gun on her. He exploded in a bright mist of color. When the pink evaporated, she ran over and started kicking the corpse.

"Thought it would be fucking easy killing an archaeologist, huh motherfucker?!" She shouted. "Well how you Syndicate Shits like me now!"

Kasumi was already moving to her when she spotted another problem. Her shouting had attracted one of the other assassins. He was standing atop a large cargo container nearby and charging up his dual plasma pistols. Kasumi ran the rest of the way and tackled Taq to the ground as to overcharged shots flew over her. Taq was exhaled in relief as she and Kasumi lay on the ground.

"Sorry," she apologized. "All this stress is messing with me."

"Just please don't make it easier for them to kill you," Kasumi pleaded.

She jumped up from the floor and fired off a quick burst. The Assassin jumped down from his perch and fired back. She rolled to the side, dodging the bolts and fired at his legs. Her burst caught him in the knee and then the chest. He fell to the floor, his guns sliding out to the side. She fired a few more shots into him just to be sure.

"Okay, three left," she said. "We're even now. Almost home free."

Before she even finished her sentence she started hearing the sound of an engine powering up. It sounded familiar, like a screeching noise. Then she remembered, there had been one under a Banshee. Taq saw it first, pointing up above them. Kasumi looked to see a Banshee hovering over them, moving in ever so slowly on their position, it's guns aimed at them.

"Crap, run!"

Taq scrambled to her feet as plasma bolts fired at them, raking the ground. Taq covered her head as she ran, Kasumi firing bursts into the air. Some hit the craft, but it didn't do much. They ran back to the Pelican again as more shots raked the human craft.

"We are so dead now," Taq screeched. "Once that asshole figures out how to aim with that thing we're fucked."

Kasumi wasn't about to let that happen, she had another idea. She remembered plasma pistol overcharges had one other function, direct EMP blast. It disabled any vehicle it hit. Wasn't much, but it was something. She could see the dropped plasma pistol of the assassin she killed in front of her. It was out in the open, a risk, but she didn't have much to lose. She turned on her cloak again, made a run for the gun. It would give her a few extra seconds if the Banshee couldn't see her. She dove and grabbed for the gun, charging it in her hand as she aimed it back at the alien craft hovering above them. The big glowing green ball was a clear dead give away to her position. She doubted it went unnoticed by the assassin in the Banshee. She just had to hope she was faster. She let go of the trigger.

A single big green bolt flew across the length of the hangar. The banshee moved to avoid the shot, firing as it moved. Kasumi rolled to the side, avoiding the strafing fire. Her bolt managed to hit it's mark though, striking the Banshee in the side. Everything went dead and the aircraft began to dip, heading straight for her.

She held her ground, firing into the falling Banshee with her Locust. The shots pierced the cockpit and must've killed the pilot because the whole craft took a deep nose dive. Kasumi turned to make a run for it, hoping to avoid the now crashing craft as scraped against the ground. She tried to turn to avoid it only for one of her legs to be clipped by the struts. She fell to the floor, the impact made her lose her grip on her guns and they tumbled away. Her vision blurry from the fall, the next thing she saw was Taq rushing over to pick her up off the ground.

"Nice work," Taq said as she helped her to her feet. "Only two left now."

Just as she said that though, a blue plasma grenade hit the downed Banshee.

"Oh come on!" Taq screamed, forcing Kasumi to run.

The resulting explosion seconds later sent out a shockwave that sent them both hurtling back to the floor. Kasumi's ears were ringing and her eyes were still in bad shape from both falls. But she could eventually see her Locust, sitting just a few feet away. She looked to Taq who was moaning and laying on the floor. At least she was alive. Kasumi towards the gun, but before she even reached it, a clawed bird-like foot stomped on it. She looked up, her eyes finally focusing on what she assumed was one of the last two assassins. Instead, she saw someone else.

Standing with his foot firmly on her gun... was Retz.

"Retz, what-"

He didn't say anything, he just raised his plasma pistol to her head.

"Just don't move," he said coldly. "Makes this easier."

The confusion suddenly vanished and everything clicked. He knew what they were facing from the start. He always had all the answers. He knew everything about the Syndicate in intricate detail. He knew how'd they react, what they'd do. That darknet in the network Tali found. How he didn't seem to care about making a scene with Kec. The fact these guys had gotten aboard in the first place without him knowing. The fact that they beat them here somehow. The fact Retz seemed so disappointed in how it seemed they weren't living up to the expectation. Even all those stories he told. Everything about today suddenly made far too much sense and she kicked herself for not seeing it.

"You're Syndicate," she said scowling at him. "You're the eighth agent."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Retz said shrugging slightly. "I've been here way longer. I'd like to think I'm number one."

Taq finally stirred pushing herself up with her hands. He kept his gun on Kasumi but looked to the female Jackal as she rose. When she saw what was happening, she didn't have to ask questions.

"Ah fuck," she groaned.

"I'm sorry, Taq," he apologized. "I do like you. But this is beyond me."

Kasumi tried to grab at his foot, get him to release the gun. Instead she ended up getting kicked back. She fell into Taq with a thud, Retz's gun still aimed at her. He still wore no expression, but her angry gaze kept on him.

"Why did you take so long?" She asked him. "You could've killed her at any time. Killed me."

"True, but I was hoping for another solution," he admitted. "This whole thing was a mess. They should've been patient but one of them wasn't. I could've resolved this, but they had to send amateurs. Now there's no choice."

He sighed sadly, his expression only slightly faltering.

"I was really hoping I wouldn't have to disappoint Zek," he said wistfully. "I suppose I could ask Taq to just give me the module and I can just tell them you're dead, but honestly I know her too well. She's not going to let that happen."

"Damn right I'm not," Taq growled.

"See, this is why I like you," Retz informed her. "You're very devoted to your job. A lesser kig-yar would surrender the data in the vain hope of saving themselves, but you? Of course you won't."

Kasumi kept hitting herself mentally. So stupid. Tali, Shepard, Garrus, they all warned her and now she was screwed.

"You realize this close to the _Normandy_ you won't get far," she told him. "They've heard that explosion by now, they're probably already on the way. You can kill us, but you won't escape."

"I know, it's pretty stupid of me," he admitted. "I really felt it would've been better if we just grabbed the module and left it at that. But, this is how it has to be."

"Does it?" Kasumi asked. "Come on, you have to be smarter than this. You're admitting that this is dumb yourself! You don't wanna do this! I can tell!"

"It's not about what I want, it never has been," Retz explained rather plainly. "It's about what I have to do."

"The question is though, what are you going to do, Retz?"

That was another voice, different this time, more sly and irritated in tone. Stepping out from the shadows appeared another Jackal, a Covenant Rifle on his back and Plasma Rifle in hand. He had a scar across his cheek and slightly cracked beak. His blue quills fashioned into a small Mohawk. Retz just looked at him, almost in mock surprise.

"Now what are you doing here, Jerl?" He asked the newcomer, feigning shock at his arrival.

"Stuff it, Retz," Jerl snarled back. "I was sent here to make sure you didn't fuck everything up. Why do you think you weren't made Lead Operator? They got someone better."

"So they sent you?" Retz said, almost laughing. "Well, that's insulting."

"Cute, but we both know the truth here," Jerl growled at him. "I told them myself, you're too damn close to this. You've always been too damn close. You aren't reliable, why else would you have wasted so much damn time over this garbage? I knew you had gone soft working for that idiot. This right here just proved me right."

"You've never been right about anything," Retz told him, practically chuckling now.

Jerl tore the Plasma Pistol away from Retz's grasp and chucked it away. He then aimed his own gun at Kasumi and Taq, but he kept his glare on Retz. Kasumi just tried to follow the situation, look for an opening anything. It was clear these two knew each other, and had a lot of animosity. Maybe she could use that, turn it on them when she got the chance.

"If you were still as good as you thought you were, we wouldn't have been called," Jerl explained. "You're too worried about keeping your friends, Retz. That's a luxury you should've avoided. Honestly, given everything you've done, I'd expect you to know that better than anyone. Now look at you, a pathetic waste of feathers and bone content to play second fiddle to a moron like Zek."

"He's at least more charming company than you, Jerl," Retz claimed nonchalantly. "Honestly, this all seems so overblown anyway. A full kill squad for one female and a data module? Seriously? Are the Queens that afraid of a single Forerunner Relic? Hell, it could just be a fancy dishwasher for all we know."

Jerl exhaled in utter contempt.

"This is why I was the principal and not you," he informed Retz. "Hell, it's why I decided to keep you mostly in the dark until we were aboard. You are so out of the loop. You really think that this relic would attract the attention of fucking Snarlbeak if it was just that simple? It's not. There is far more at stake than one measly little artifact. The Syndicate will not let everything we've built be jeopardized because of Zhoc's ambitions."

"As if I believe they trusted you with the whole story," Retz snorted. "Prove it, what's this whole thing really about?"

"You can ask after this is over and we're gone," Jerl growled at him. "As in we're leaving, you're going back. Now shut up so we can be done with this clusterfuck."

"Yes," Retz said coldly. "Lets."

Kasumi stared down the end of the Plasma Pistol, getting a flashbang ready to strike. Last desperate act, only thing they could do. She got ready to throw it and then... she heard a shot. But it wasn't a Plasma Pistol, it was a Carnifex. Jerl's face suddenly went blank, his eyes going to his gut where blood was starting to pour out. Kasumi looked across the way to see Retz pointing her Carnifex at Jerl. He then fired another shot and Jerl fell to the floor dead, the look of genuine horrified surprise on his face.

Kasumi looked in shock as Retz took his foot off her Locust and eyed the Carnifex.

"Hmm, not a fan," he admitted. "But it's a decent stopper."

He pointed the gun at Kasumi again, but this time with the handle pointed to her. He also kicked the Locust back to her.

"Well, they are yours, take'em," he insisted.

Kasumi to the Carnifex back, but wasn't sure what to do with it. Retz himself had gone over to Jerl's body and was digging around in it.

"Scrambler has to be on him," he said. "I'll shut it down. We can call for someone to clean this up if they aren't already moving in like you said."

Now confusion had set right back in. She wasn't sure if she should shoot him right now or not. He had killed a fellow Syndicate member, given her back her weapon, he wasn't even doing anything to defend himself.

"What. The. Hell?" Taq asked suddenly.

"Forgive me, Taq, Ms. Goto," he told them courteously. "This was all unfortunately necessary."

"Necessary?" Kasumi asked bewildered.

"Yes, I needed to draw them all out, I knew our prisoner would never talk," Retz explained. "I thought they were going to assault the _Normandy_ though. A lot more defensible. When they acted early, I knew I didn't have much other choice but to reveal a few of my secrets. I told you before, everyone on the crew has a few. I was hoping mine wouldn't come out so suddenly."

"But why?" Kasumi asked, desperately seeking a clear answer. "Why did you...?"

"Act as if I was going to kill you?" Retz asked in return. "Simple, I knew it had to be Jerl running this thing. It was all so sloppy, so characteristic of him. If anyone knew what was going on it would be him. He'd know. So I set this all up in order to draw him out. I knew he would at least be smart enough to suspect that drop was a trap and made sure to tell him where we were taking our prisoner discreetly. He was a little faster than I hoped as you can see."

"Why did you need to lure Jerl out?" Taq asked as she stood up.

"Because going after your data module with a full squad of killers didn't make sense on the surface," Retz explained simply. "There had to be more. Now we know there is indeed more to that relic than what we thought originally. I was hoping I'd convince Jerl to spill everything, but it was clear that wouldn't happen unless you came to harm and we couldn't have that. I told you, Taq, I like you too much."

Retz tore something off the dead Jerl and crushed it in his hands. He let the now broken electronic device fall to the floor and he turned back to Kasumi.

"Well, call this in," he told her. "Let's wrap things up."

"You still haven't really explained why," Kasumi told him sternly. "Why'd you kill Jerl? Why protect Taq?"

"Haven't I made that clear this entire time?" Retz asked, "I've told you before, kig-yar value trust above all things. Loyalty is never to be shared lightly. In the end, I did what needed to be done, because two dear friends were counting on me. Simple as that."

"But the Syndicate..."

Retz put up a hand, stopping her.

"They're not here," he explained thusly. "This isn't their ship, this isn't their Fleet. Simple as that."

Retz started to walk away, leaving Kasumi and Taq dumbfounded. He began checking the other assassin bodies, probably in the hopes it would tell him more. Kasumi still had questions, but she had stalled long enough. She called the incident in.

* * *

"How long have you known?"

Zek looked at Kasumi rather plainly as he sat in his chair in the near empty rec-room. It took him a bit to understand the question.

"Since I inherited the _Serpent_ ," he answered plainly. "Why else do you think I trusted him with the job?"

"And you still let him be your First Mate?" Kasumi said, still trying to wrap her head around it all. "I don't get it, why? Why didn't you tell me? Or anyone?"

"It didn't matter at the time and it was Retz's secret to share," Zek informed her. "The fact is, it worked out. Taq is safe, the Syndicate agents are gone and the ODSTs have rooted out a problem. There's really nothing more to this."

Kasumi wished she could believe that, but it wasn't that simple. A few hours ago it was, Space Pirate wasn't nearly as complex then. Now, it was a mess of contradictions and strange codes of thieving honor that stumbled over each other constantly. Kasumi wanted to believe she knew what to make of it, but she couldn't.

"You never once questioned Retz's loyalty on this?" She asked. "Not even a bit?"

"He's always done a good job figuring out how to balance things before today," Zek said, shrugging slightly. "Things did not go as well as he wanted this time, but it couldn't be helped. He did what I knew he would, he protected Taq, he protected this ship. It's what he's always done and I never expect anything less."

"But why? Why do you believe in him that much?" Kasumi asked. "He's the biggest liar among any of you. He lies all the time, he's done it to me all day and ever since we met him!"

"He is a liar," Zek admitted. "He's the best liar I've ever known, but that's not all there is to him. People are rarely ever one thing, Ms. Goto. Retz is, as you would call him, a Pirate Spy. He does work for the Syndicate, or did, it depends on how things end when this all gets back to them. But like we keep telling you, trust is more valuable than anything material in the life of a kig-yar. And Retz, for all his lying and scheming, is one of the few I trust entirely."

Zek took a small sip from his cup full of ichor, smacking his beak a bit before he continued.

"I'm the only person he never lies to anymore," he flat out stated. "The one person he's always honest with. That's something no amount of credits could ever buy. That's why I trust him, with Varvok a close second. That's the thing I don't think Shepard and the UNSC get to be honest. You see, this is a two way street here. We'll stop lying when we believe we can trust you. Pass that along when you can."

Kasumi wasn't sure how to respond to that, all she knew was that today had been something of an eye opener. For all her daredevil dreams and bravado, this had been a shock to the system she hadn't been expected. Zek was fine with it, but she had left herself vulnerable and she had no one to blame but herself. All she knew now was that she needed a drink.

* * *

The music was turned up loud and the carousing had begun anew. The song was another one by the band Alestorm called "Nancy the Tavern Wrench." Seemed to fit the mood more or less. She was sitting down at the table in Row's bar, on her third shot in fact, when the bottle of ichor slammed next to her. She looked up to see Retz staring down at her.

"Thirsty I see," he said.

"Hey," Kasumi said, not entirely enthused at his presence.

Retz sat down without being invited and put his feet up. He already had a big glass of water in hand and was taking swigs here and there. Kasumi just looked at him and saw he was smiling, looking carefree, like she had been herself just hours before. He didn't seem to have a worry in the world.

"So why are you here?" Kasumi asked, spinning one of her empty glasses around. "I'd think Haverson would still be talking to you."

"Oh we've already had our pleasant chat," he assured her. "In no uncertain terms I'm apparently going to be watched like a hawk from now on. I told him, go ahead, I have nothing to hide."

Well she knew that was a lie, maybe now more so than ever. She didn't bother saying it aloud though, she honestly wasn't even sure if she should still be talking to him. Retz wasn't so conflicted.

"So, how are you enjoying Row's stock special of the day?" He randomly asked.

That was it, she couldn't handle it. All this smiling and coy attitude, it didn't make sense. It just felt so wildly out of touch right now. Maybe it was okay before, but not after what had happened, not after everything. She was a thief, she got it, you were dishonest by nature, but she expected better of herself. She expected better of the people she trusted. Now this had happened and Retz seemed content to just act like it was all a big joke. The lies, the deception, the fact he pointed a gun at her, that the whole day and everything that occurred had gone to his plan accordingly. Now he just expected things to go back to normal? For her to have no problems and just strike up a casual conversation? Just have a drink and laugh like everything was okay?

Screw that.

"How can you just sit there like that?" She asked him harshly. "How can you honestly just sit here and act like nothing happened? Like this whole day meant nothing to you?"

"Ms. Goto, please," Retz said, sounding somewhat disturbed. "This has been a trial for everyone involved. Lieutenant McKay had to root out a traitor, Vakarian got yelled at by xenophobes a lot, we faced a lot of risks together in general, but in the end it all turned out for the best. I see no reason to dwell on it further."

"That's not good enough," Kasumi told him sternly. "I'm sorry, but it's not. I got close to you, too close and it almost got me killed today."

"I had no intention of shooting you, Ms. Goto," he insisted, sounding truly offended by the accusation. "You were in no danger whatsoever, believe me."

"That's the problem, I believed you," Kasumi explained vehemently. "I believed you and it put me in danger. You kept me in the dark from the beginning. You knew exactly what was going on and you used me to get to your desired outcome, or at least the closest to it. How do you expect me to feel about that?"

Retz sighed, nodding before he took another swig of his water. He then placed the glass down on the table and took his legs off it at the same time.

"I can't honestly expect you to feel happy about this," he admitted. "I'm truly sorry if you felt used, but I can't help that feeling. I couldn't trust you with everything, even if I do admire your tenacity and professionalism. However, I did try to be as honest as possible in all our transactions."

"With your stories," Kasumi said, a skeptical tone rising in her voice. "Yeah, about that, I've done a little thinking there and I figured something out. They weren't about other agents were they? They were about you."

Retz said nothing, which in her eyes was as good as a confession. He just took another sip of his water. The silence lasted a few more awkward seconds, with the Jackal just sitting there thoughtfully. She wondered if he was hoping she'd just leave or if he was thinking of a way to change the subject. It was plain to see the gears working in his head, probably trying to form a new lie to get out of this. However, her expectations turned out to be wrong again. For once, he didn't try to hide anything.

"It was the name of my friend wasn't it?" He finally asked rather plainly. "I suppose it was too much of a hint. My fault for being cute."

"Zert is an anagram for Retz," she said, confirming his guess. "It wasn't hard to figure it all out from that point. You've been an agent your whole life. You've done all these things in their name, a lot of them while working for Zek."

"I'm not really sure I've been one of them for a long time," Retz admitted distantly. "I've been something, but I'm not sure I'm one of them. The fact is, when the chips were down, when things were going wrong, I had few people I could count on. Zek was one of them. I suppose, in the end, that mattered more than any supposed loyalty that they had tried to instill. Nothing beats actual friendship when compared to promises of power and respect."

Kasumi almost laughed for a moment, recalling something from before. Back during the early hours of the morning when this pirate stuff still seemed adventurous and fun. Retz's words had just now helped her remember.

"Zek mentioned you felt nostalgic while watching 'Goodfellas'," she recalled. "Said you felt a connection with the character."

"Only in that he could've been me had I remained that naive and stupid," Retz explained rather monotone. "I'm the Henry Hill who beat the inevitable. I didn't have to sell out who I was to stay alive. I didn't trust in the people who told me to kill others in their name. I didn't put faith in their system and expect them to protect me. I put my trust and faith with someone who offered me something they never could. That's why I haven't been one of them for a long time. And why I'm not in a Cul De Sac regretting how my fuck ups cost me everything."

"It's that easy then?" Kasumi asked. "Zek's your friend and that's all there is to it? Like, he showed you the magic of pirate friendship or something?"

"Well that's a strange sappy way to put it," Retz countered, sounding incredibly baffled. "Why is this so hard for you to understand?"

"Because it's hard to believe you, Retz," Kasumi told him, almost as shocked by how he seemed to just not get what her problem was. "I honestly thought I knew who you were, that I knew what I was dealing with. Instead I think I know even less about you than before I even met you!"

Retz turned to her and looked at her dispassionately. His usual grin only slightly wavering as he spoke.

"Ms. Goto, I have told you everything about me," he informed her. "Very intimate personal things, in fact."

"Yes and apparently they were all lies or twisted truths," Kasumi reminded him. "Even accepting that you were actually the Agent in all those stories you told me, there are still problems. They are constantly contradicting themselves and each other. Of all the the stories you told me, what parts of them were true and which were fiction? I honestly can't tell."

Retz merely smiled at that, his eyes glowing as he did. He leaned back slightly, his hands now moved apart from each other. He was back to looking coy and sly, which at this point seemed to be his default setting.

"Ms. Goto, I can assure you of this singular fact," he stated firmly. "In regards to the stories I told you today, they were all true."

Kasumi just smirked skeptically back at the Jackal.

"Even with all the lies?" She asked.

Retz leaned in close, his eyes gleaming and smile ever the slyest.

"They're more true because of all the lies," he insisted grinning widely. "Especially because of the lies."

As he said that, Kasumi watched his face. Her eyes met him, her gaze never wavering. The look, the words, the tone, it all spoke one single thing to her. The realization was quick and seamless. This was the most honest, sincere thing he had ever said to her. It was the truth and this time she was certain of it. In that moment she leaned back herself. What started as a giggle, grew to a chuckle and than a full-blown laugh. Retz joined in shortly after. Kasumi poured herself a shot of the ichor he had brought and raised it up. Retz grabbed his glass of water and they clinked them together in a toast of sorts.

Yes, he was a liar. These Pirates weren't who she thought. Somehow though, it didn't matter. She couldn't explain it, but it just didn't. Honesty for them was different, special, too valuable to be given out lightly. Even the slightest bit was a gift and, at least for her, it seemed like enough. She had to be careful about Retz, about what she did around this crew, that was clear now. She accepted that. In time, maybe Zek wouldn't be the only person Retz never lied to. Or maybe he wouldn't, it didn't really matter in that moment and the song playing seemed to agree.

 **So come take a drink and drown your sorrows,**

 **And all of our fears will be gone till tomorrow.**

 **We'll have no regrets and live for today,**

 **In Nancy's Harbor Cafe!**

* * *

AN: We're back from an extended absence! I hope you didn't miss us too much and that you enjoyed the conclusion to this two part mystery. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the next installment of this story as we finally reached the downed Forerunner ship you've been waiting for. But right now, please visit my blog through my profile page for more notes on this chapter and the juicy revelations within. I appreciate all your reviews, thoughts and criticisms and, please do visit the TV tropes page when you can to add to it? Have a good one, readers, and see you next time.


	11. The Grave of the Dauntless

Chapter 10: The Grave of the Dauntless

 _My Name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair._

 _-Ozymandias_

Tali exited the briefing room, her mind still reeling from the news Liara brought. She honestly wished she could've helped more, but the situation was greater than her current knowledge. If only she weren't a whole universe away. At that moment she felt so incredibly useless and there was nothing she could do about it. She knew Shepard would feel the same way, which was why she dreaded explaining it in detail to him. Sadly, he was right there at the door waiting for her. She didn't need to say anything for him to guess it wasn't good news though.

"Is it really that bad?" He asked her.

She was far too akin to an open book to him. She always clutched herself when deeply troubled, a coping mechanism she had formed. She liked to think of it as an attempt to hug herself, trying to pacify the fear. It never worked, but she didn't anyway. Made it harder to hide anything from Shepard though, so she had practically stopped trying. He needed to know this in any case.

"Liara's team encountered something... different," she tried to explain carefully. "It was aboard a Covenant ship they attacked. Liara wanted my opinion on it because, well, it's synthetic."

Shepard instantly guessed what this was about.

"Geth?"

"Worse if what she's saying is accurate," Tali cautioned. "You're not going to like hearing this. It's a Heretic, or at least it used to be."

Shepard stepped back a moment, uncrossing his arms, shocked at the news. Tali wondered what his first question would be. She considered two likely ones, he surprised her by asking a combination of both in a way.

"I killed them all, Legion and I killed them all," he reminded her. "Are you saying they found a way to survive the virus?"

"Just a small percentage, and then they found a damaged AI the Covenant had captured," Tali clarified gravely. "It's not friendly, not in the slightest. Worse, it claims it's a true AI and it sounds like it has some sort of plan."

Shepard shook his head and sighed. Yeah, he was not happy about this. Shepard's reasoning behind killing the Geth Heretics had been difficult one. It was either kill them or brainwash them. Neither option seemed particularly moral in Shepard's eyes. He chose the former only because he decided that the Heretics had made their choice. If he valued free will, if he valued the ability of sapient beings to make their own decisions, then he could not violate their free will. So, he killed them, as a consequence for siding with the Reapers and all the innocent lives they chose to take. He wasn't entirely happy about it, but he could live with it.

Now it stood revealed he had missed a few and they had come back from the grave.

"Liara is on it," Tali assured him in small attempt to ease his conscience. "If anyone can handle this it's her."

"Yeah, but it's not any less easy knowing a friend is in danger and it's probably your fault," he explained.

He sighed again and then asked the inevitable question that Tali had already asked herself a few times by now.

"Do we tell Legion?" He asked her bluntly.

"We should, but after today's mission," Tali reasoned. "I'm not sure how this news could affect their glitch. I need them working at full capacity if we're going to make any headway down there."

"Fair enough, but do tell them when you can," Shepard insisted. "The Heretic issue was a big deal for them. And they could offer some insight on how Liara can fight this thing."

"My thoughts exactly, but let's just get through today first," Tali reiterated.

They began to leave the connecting corridor through the armory, speaking as they went. There was quite a bit to cover after all. Today was a rather important day after all.

"Have they got a team ready?" Tali asked him.

"A modest unit of ODSTs and Marines, they're already massing in the hangar," Shepard informed her. "Taq is going to meet us all there. She's chomping at the bit to get this started."

"Makes sense, in her mind this is her dig," Tali acknowledged with a shrug. "She pretty much figures she's the boss."

"Well, besides you she's the only one here who knows a ton about the Forerunners," Shepard said as they exited onto the command deck. "Holland knows that, it's why she's been given special authority over the operation."

"Some people aren't going to like that," Tali noted nervously.

"That's why we're going down there with them," Shepard told her as they got inside the elevator. "This needs to go smooth, for all our sakes. It will shed some light on what the hell the Inquisitor and the Covenant are planning for us. That and it's not everyday you uncover an ancient spaceship wreck."

They had entered the system during the first sleep cycle for the ship. As per Holland's orders, directed by the information from Taq's study of the data module, they began scanning within a select area. The _Ascendant Justice_ was actually equipped to locate Forerunner-based energy sources. If there was even a residual trace of energy or alloy they'd find it. They also did a fly over with the _Crusty Chorka_ and the _Normandy_ for a more direct observational scan. Their job was to decrease the search area by finding evidence of crash. Thanks to Taq focusing their efforts considerably, it didn't take long to accomplish that task.

On a small dirt-clod of a planet, orbited by two reddish-orange moons, they discovered a huge chunk taken out of a mountain. It didn't look like natural erosion, but as if something had slammed into the side of it and kept going. They tracked the suspected trajectory to discover a trench in a small mountain range, cutting clean through it. There was no water on the planet's surface, so it wasn't your average canyon. Not far from that they found it on the scanners. Sticking out of the side of a cliffside, rested against the ground, was what appeared to be the backside of a ship. One that matched the ship detailed in the data module.

They had found their crashed Forerunner ship.

After that, everything went into overdrive. The planet's thin atmosphere meant they'd all have to be in spacesuits for the duration of the mission. A deep scan of the crash site gave them more details on their target. The ship was mostly intact beneath the surface, but parts of it had apparently broken off, specifically the nose section. It amazingly was not flattened, as you'd expect from diving head first into solid rock. Forerunner engineering was apparently more sturdy than your average ship. There was also an extensive cave network honeycombing the inside. Perhaps underground rivers that had dried up eons ago? It wasn't clear at the moment, but they did go in and around the whole of the ship. That gave them ample room to move around down there.

A reconnaissance and survey team moved in first. Comprising of a number of technicians, Jackal Pirates, Batarians and Army personnel, their mission was to secure the site and set up a preliminary operations base. Within an hour, they had gotten everything ready on the outside. All that remained, was getting the excavation team groundside. They would enter the ship and begin the investigation into what exactly happened to it. The chief goal of which, was the recovery of the suspected Forerunner Relic of Power currently residing somewhere within. Given the general size of the vessel though, that was going to be a tall order.

"You have Halsey's Journal on you?" Shepard asked as they descended.

"Yes and it at least has some information about Forerunner artifacts that we can use," she said, pulling the little tattered book out to show him. "A lot of the later entries were centered around the one we found on Reach after all. Plus there's a page on the rudimentary alphabet the Forerunners used. Although I suspect Taq already knows how to translate all this. At least this way I can assist her in some form."

"You just worry about the artifact," Shepard told her. "If this thing is a weapon or could be used as one, we need to find out exactly what it does. Any clues you find down there can speed that process along."

"I'm not too worried," Tali assured him. "The ship's datalogs should have all the information we need. It's just a matter of accessing them. I'm more concerned about you, honestly. Varvok is going to be with us, right?"

Shepard grimaced at the name.

"Yeah, he is," he grumbled. "Thankfully, nothing is going to be shooting us down there, so we don't have to worry about him abandoning our flank."

Tali suddenly hit a button on the lift, stopping it dead. Shepard looked to her surprised, and already saw her returning a rather serious expression.

"We're not going to get anywhere if you keep this grudge going," she warned him.

"I'm not the one with the grudge, Tali," he insisted. "He's the one with issues."

"I don't exactly like Varvok either, but we do need his support if we're going to make this Alliance work," she stated firmly. "I know, he put the squad in danger, it put me in danger, but you can't let that continue to make things difficult."

"If this was just about how he almost got you killed, I'd be a hell of a lot angrier, believe me," Shepard informed her. "I admit, that is part of the reason, but it's bigger than that. He acted on his own judgment and went off half-cocked. That might have flown when he was in charge, but he's not anymore. He should've contacted me, he should've let me know what he was doing. He shut down that distress signal, good. I wish he had bothered to inform everyone else what he was doing in advance."

"To be fair, we've done that a lot ourselves," Tali argued.

"Never when other squads were involved and never without first trying to inform the rest of the unit," Shepard clarified. "Acting on your own accord is feasible when you're the only people in danger. Varvok didn't think to consider that his actions might have repercussion for the entire operation, beyond just his men. That's the problem, Tali, he doesn't really care about the rest of us. At the end of the day, he will do what's best for his men, even if it's not good for us. It's hard to trust someone like that."

She supposed he was right. Varvok's own interests didn't exactly align with theirs. He was against the Covenant, he wanted to see it fall. However, his motives were not about saving humanity. They were about freeing the batarian people from being subjugated. If that meant he could destroy the Covenant without having to save Earth from getting glassed, he'd probably do it. Like it or not, it was hard to trust someone who didn't seem to care how he got to his goal, just so long as he got there. At the same time though, they did need him and Tali knew Shepard felt the same.

"You're going to have to find a way to trust him," she explained. "That is not going to happen if you don't settle things with him. You're not all that different when you think about it. You're both military-minded, you're both leaders. There has to be some common ground."

"I'm not opposed to finding it, Tali," Shepard replied. "Part of me wonders if he wants to come to an understanding. He stills sees me as a symbol of everything humanity has done to his people. Commander Shepard, the guy who totally foiled the attack on Elysium. That's what I am to him."

"Well we both know it's more complicated than that," Tali said shrugging slightly. "Take it from me, it's hard re-evaluating everything you thought about an enemy. You and Legion helped me reconsider my stance on the Geth. This situation is practically the same. If you two can just get to the heart of the matter, I know Varvok can at least knock the chip off his shoulder for awhile. You don't have to become friends, just hash this out. Otherwise, this whole alliance is going to fall apart."

"I know, I know," Shepard admitted reluctantly. "If I can't even get along with him, the UNSC never will. I want us to reach an understanding, I do. I'm just not sure how to get there."

"You'll figure it out," she said encouragingly. "You're Commander Shepard after all."

Tali pressed the lift button again and they continued their descent to the shuttle bay.

"I'll try and have a talk with Varvok as soon as possible," Shepard promised. "If nothing else I'll at least open a dialogue."

He then turned to her directly.

"Thanks by the way," he told her.

"Don't mention it," she replied. "I'm the girlfriend after all. Part of the job description is making sure you don't make an ass of yourself."

Shepard let a short chuckle.

"Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve you," he said with a warm smile.

"Well, saving me from assassins and killer Geth if you want to get technical," Tali answered. "I'd be sorta dead otherwise."

* * *

The Pelicans and Phantoms were already warming up within the massive hangar of the _Ascendant Justice_ when the expedition force assembled nearby. Two squads of Marines and one squad of twelve ODSTs made up the UNSC's portion of assembly. At the head of the unit was Lieutenant McKay, fully decked out in her armor. On the other side, the Jackals had two full squads themselves, accompanied by a single Batarian squad. Zek, Retz and Varvok were all there in person. Varvok himself was busy checking his weapon over once more and trying to avoid eye contact with any humans. Hard to do, considering how often the two sides seemed to leer at each other. The tension was as evident as clear divide between both groups, they did not want to be close to each other. It was like a high school dance filled with nervous wallflowers, only it was more a case of resentment causing the separation than being shy.

Shepard arrived at this scene with Tali, Legion, Samara, Jack, Zaeed and Thane in tow. A larger than usual squad, but the ship looked pretty damn big in any case, so Shepard decided they might need the extra hands. Shepard had expected to find an awkward situation of a sort, he didn't expect a figurative canyon between the two sides.

"Well this just looks like the happiest little get together ever, don't it?" Jack asked, huffing at it all. "We might as well just have them start shooting at each other now. Get it out of their systems."

"Let's try not to antagonize the situation further," Shepard requested. "I think we all want this to go smoothly."

"And some of them want to start trading bullets and shit," Jack clarified. "I'm just stating the obvious."

Shepard sighed and filed into the middle of the assembly. He quickly caught Varvok's eye as he moved in. The Commander approached the batarian slowly, offering a small appreciative nod.

"Varvok," he began, noticing the four-eyed alien fiddling with his weapon. "Anything wrong with your gun?"

"It's fine," he responded. "I'm just checking the modifications. I don't exactly know what we'll find down there."

"I doubt it will be anything alive," Shepard told him. "It's a wreck that's been sitting in the rock for eons by now."

"So was Halo, length of time doesn't mean a thing," Varvok countered. "There could be anything down there."

"Just saying that with any luck you won't need to use it," Shepard tried to clarify.

"I don't value luck as much as preparation," Varvok replied.

The batarian pulled out a bayonet and stuck it to the end of the rifle. That was Shepard's cue to just back off already. Varvok didn't want to chat right now.

"I should go, I guess," he admitted.

"You should," Varvok sneered. "You're a rather annoying distraction."

Shepard sighed and walked away. He didn't get far though before he had his own distraction. Zek was quick to rush up to him, chattering away as he did.

"Isn't this exciting, Commander?" He asked. "A real live treasure hunt! You, me, Varvok, the whole damn crew, all after one goal in mind, Forerunner junk. Really sweet potentially dangerous Forerunner junk. Hopefully this time it is sans parasitic monsters, am I right?"

"We can hope," Shepard admitted. "Where's Taq by the way? I figured she'd be here."

"She's on her way," Zek assured him. "Had to talk to Holland about some things. She is working for him after all, so I'm guessing she has to brief him first. Quick question, by the by, you think the Forerunners had any cool long range rifles? I've been looking to add to my arsenal a little."

"Couldn't say, honestly," Shepard admitted. "We've never come across any Forerunner guns."

"Well, guess we'll just have to crack that wreck open and see for ourselves then," Zek admitted. "It's like a hatchday present, a surprise! I do love surprises. Surprise attacks, surprise ambushes, they're all good fun."

Shepard shook his head and rolled his eyes. He had stopped being surprised how quickly these conversations turned weird with Zek. He wasn't about to let himself get led astray though.

"Just remember why we're actually here, the Forerunner Artifact that might be inside that ship," Shepard reminded the pirate. "Everything else is just extra."

"I still want something for myself," Zek explained. "What's the point of treasure hunting if you don't get something out of it for yourself?"

"You'll get your cut of the spoils," Shepard told him assuringly. "Just keep in mind there are bigger stakes here than profit."

"Profit is the biggest stake there is, Shepard," Zek slyly told him. "Hell, one would say it's the only stake, period. Your war effort profits from this venture, Taq profits from it, we profit from it. That's how the universe works. Everything has a price tag, everything is worth something to someone."

Zek's little philosophy lesson would not progress further than that. For it was just then that Taq arrived, Colonel Holland by her side. He was flanked by Haverson, Master Chief, Linda and Kat. Jun was already on the surface of the planet with the Army Troopers, maintaining the perimeter. Taq was quick to step in front of the assembly. The UNSC personnel stood at attention, along with the crew of the _Normandy_ , as Colonel Holland moved in beside her. The pirates and the batarians did not copy the gesture. Holland didn't seem to care.

"At ease," the Colonel began. "You all know why we're on this rock. We're doing a little... treasure hunting for lack of a better word. Inside the wreck we discovered is a Forerunner artifact of potentially dangerous and immense power. We cannot risk the Covenant finding it, so we're extracting it before they can locate this vessel. While they are not in orbit or near this planet in any capacity, they could very well be on their way for all we know. Along with anyone else who is after this wreck. That is why the perimeter base we've set up is down there right now, securing the area. And it is also why we need to be as efficient as possible in executing this operation. For that reason, I will now turn you over to Taq, who will explain our operation plan in detail."

Taq stepped forward and activated a small holo-module in her hand. A large image of the massive wreck appeared above their heads. It was clear that it had been pieced together through the information on Taq's data module as well as the deep scans performed earlier. They therefore had a more complete picture over what they were dealing with at the moment.

"This is the overall layout of the ship itself, as you can see, it is mostly intact save for the front end," she began to explain. "While the vessel is no doubt loaded with precious artifacts, our primary concern is the Relic of Power as detailed in the ship's manifest. It could be anywhere aboard the ship, including the front end near the bridge. Luckily, the caverns around the ship provide us with a means of getting to it. In order to find what we're looking for, we need to cast a wide net."

Lines started forming on the image, moving through the ship as Taq kept speaking.

"We are entering through this service hatch located near the stern," she explained. "That should get us into the maintenance levels, close to their engines and power supply. From here, I will find a terminal and attempt to access the ship's logs. Colonel Holland assures me that the Master Chief's AI Cortana should be more than capable of handling that and, with luck, should also be able to reactivate other core systems. Forerunner tech is capable of surviving for long periods of time and their power supply is more resilient than anything either of our species have been able to create. So that shouldn't too problematic. The real challenge will then come as we begin the search proper, splitting into teams to perform a thorough search of the ship."

That was when Lieutenant McKay's hand shot up. Taq looked to it and nodded. The ODST leader didn't skip a beat.

"What exactly are we looking for?" She asked. "What does this relic look like?"

"I can't be certain, Relics of Power are relatively unique," Taq admitted. "However, it should readily stand out. Given its importance, it was probably kept in a high security area. That will make getting to it potentially difficult. Which is why you should all have ion cutters in your gear. Otherwise you are probably not going to get anywhere. Even with power restored it is likely some passages will be closed off regardless due to typical security protocols. Bypassing them will take time, we don't exactly have that much."

Her face than grew more dire, her eyes growing narrow as she looked out onto the crew.

"Now in regards to any other items that aren't the relic that you might come across in there, weapons, tech, cultural artifacts, I want one thing made clear," She stressed rather sternly. "Do not play around with them. Catalog and record anything significant you might find, but do not remove them from the scene. Wait until someone smarter than you, namely me, is there to make sure you don't blow your hand off. Forerunner tech is dangerous, even if it isn't a weapon. If you don't know what something is, don't expect it to be a toy. I cannot make this more clear... don't fuck with things if you don't know what they are. You are here to find us that relic, we can handle gathering up anything else once that's sorted and the ship secured."

She then looked directly at Zek's crew. In fact, she managed to somehow pinpoint Zek in the crowd and glared directly at him. The pirate leader looked a bit put-off, rubbing his hands together as his ex stared him down.

"So save your grave robbing please until you know exactly what you're stealing from these dead aliens who aren't actually Gods but do have some freaky shit you don't fucking know jack about like I do," she declared. "Just be extra sure, I've asked Retz to head up Control while we're inside. He'll be on the surface, making sure you're all checking in when you're supposed to about everything to find. I'll say this layman's terms. No souvenirs, 're all adults, try not to get distracted by shiny shit. That's all I ask."

Zek shifted slightly in his spot.

"I almost forgot how super serious she gets when on a dig," he told Shepard in a hushed whisper. "It's kinda hot, also scary."

"I can sorta relate to that actually," Shepard admitted.

Taq continued with her briefing.

"I will be heading a team that will be targeting the cutoff forward section," she explained. "It is possible the Relic could be stored there. If not, the bridge and Captain's logs should have information on exactly where the relic is being held. That will make our job easier if we haven't found it by then. Once the Relic is secured it will be transported back here to the Carrier and placed under the watch of a select group of technicians, and myself, for study. Then we can begin the greater process of taking anything else of value from the ship and downloading the logs. All in all, should be easy to do so long as everyone does their jobs. Any questions?"

There was a short patch of silence before anyone spoke up. It was broken by another ODST raising his hand and then starting to speak.

"Yeah, I got one," he began rather curtly. "Why the hell are we taking the lead of some fucking alien bird bitch on this?"

"Trooper!" McKay shouted. "Can it!"

But Taq waved her hand about.

"No, no, I'll answer that," she explained, an angry chuckle in her voice. "I'll answer that with some questions of my own. Show of hands, who among you people has spent the better part of their lives studying the Forerunners? Who went to a big high priced school dedicated to the research of their culture, history and technology? A Covenant sponsored school, mind you. A school that eventually prevented her from studying anymore after she got her doctorate, because they didn't want to deal with her questioning the established curriculum or the so-called divinity of the Forerunners themselves. Who among you made it a career to research and study the Forerunners? Who among you has explored countless Forerunner temples, installations and even one or two lost cities? Do any of you even have a rudimentary sense of the Forerunner language? The codes that their systems run on? Have any of you written a thesis on their art and cultural works? Have any of you even seen something Forerunner related before you ran across that ringworld you later blew up? Anyone?"

There was a long, silent pause. No one raised their hand, no one said a thing. Even the Trooper who asked the question in the first place could only look at his feet in shame. Taq just looked out among them, a smug grin of satisfaction growing across her face.

"That's what I thought," she declared. "That's why I'm running this show. That's why Holland made me chief researcher on this. I got us here, it's my claim, it's my hunt. You don't like it? Too fucking bad. I suggest you get over your bullshit xenophobia already and man the fuck up. When we're inside that wreck my word is God because you people are blind otherwise. Do what I say and you'll be back on the Carrier before you know it and you can return to being simple minded isolationists on your own time. For the moment, you're on my time. So deal with it. Do not question why I'm here again. Now, any real questions?"

No one spoke up.

"Good, get your shit together then," she ordered. "We'll be heading down shortly."

Taq walked away and Holland replaced her at the front of the assembly.

"Well, you heard her, people," he told them. "I want this done and I want that relic aboard this ship. Set any other thoughts you have aside for the moment and act like the soldiers we trained you to be. With any luck, this relic is the key to turning the tide in the war. Keep that in mind. Now move out."

The assembly began to head to their designated transports instantly. Zek was the only one standing still beside Shepard.

"Is this how a lot of her expeditions start out?" Shepard asked him.

"Eh, more or less," he admitted. "She doesn't fuck around with this stuff. Just stay on her good side and listen to what she has to say. Now we better get going before she cracks another whip at us."

With that bit of good advice in hand, Shepard moved to the nearby Pelican with the rest of his team. It was time to get this treasure hunt underway.

* * *

The camp surrounding the downed Forerunner ship was already in the process of setting up temporary defenses. While no one thought Snarlbeak or the Covenant were just going to randomly show up out of nowhere, they didn't want to take the tiniest chance of being wrong. In a galaxy of infinite possibilities, even a ten percent chance of things going south was enough reason to prepare for the worst. The expedition team arrived to see a perimeter already being set up. A number of Wraith tanks appropriated from the Carrier were lined up alongside Plasma Turrets. Everything was more or less operated by Army Troopers, although they were being instructed in some cases by the Jackals. Shepard caught the eye of one exchange as his team walked past. One Jackal was hanging off the side of a tank with a Trooper in the open driver's seat.

"No, no, that's going to lock the turret up," the Jackal explained. "You need to disengage secondary and charge up the coil."

"It's not my fault you people made this shit so fucking complicated!" The Trooper shot back.

"Hey, I've seen the inside of one of your tanks, bucko," The Jackal countered. "What you need six pedals for? Don't go throwing stones in glass nests here."

"Whatever," the soldier growled. "Just hurry this up already."

Shepard shrugged, at least they were somewhat cooperating. It was better to see them getting angry over this junk than the usual stuff. In any case, the tensions between the factions weren't the issue of the day. The big wrecked Forerunner ship looming over them all was.

They approached the maintenance airlock to find Holland's soldiers had already finished cutting through the sufficiently sized door. Big enough for two squads to go through at a time. That would make insertion easy at least. One of the soldiers in charge walked up to Shepard and saluted.

"Commander, it's all set up," he assured him. "Techs say the airlock is more or less still functional. Guess the Forerunners built them to last. Normally that wouldn't matter, but the ship's atmosphere still seems to be intact and constantly generated by some sorta field."

"Excellent," Taq spoke up. "I was hoping that the ship was still in some functional state. The systems must be still running on an emergency life support system. I've encountered similar fields on less than hospitable worlds."

"Point is the ship likely has power," the soldier continued. "So we don't have to worry about you suffocating if you remove your helmets. I'd advise keeping them on to be safe though. I'm not sure it's wise to entrust everything to ancient technology."

"It's Forerunner tech, we should be fine," Taq was quick to add. "Now can we please get inside already. I didn't come this far to gawk at it."

Shepard just nodded and circled his hand in the air.

"Alright, move it up people," he ordered. "Two squads each, quick and simple, maintain perimeter in the entryway until otherwise informed. Let's go."

The insertion was as quick and painless as he had hoped. This was because they made sure there was as little tension as possible between the squads that went in. Even when some Jackals had to move in with the a squad of Marines, they mostly kept to their side of the lock. Finally, Shepard's team moved into the ship alongside the Spartans and Taq herself.

Inside they found a wide open hallway, opulent and magnificent. It looked a little like what they had seen on Halo, but different. Forerunner aesthetics did little to differentiate much from each other. It was sterilized, yet seemingly sanctified appearance. As if in the lowly inner workings of this ship had some higher purpose to relate to others. Was it any wonder the Covenant had turned the Forerunners into their Gods? The things they built seemed to carry a holistic meaning or look to them.

As much Shepard, and in fact everyone else, was fascinated by the inner devastated beauty of the ship, Taq looked positively elated. Even slightly slanted as the floor was, she circled about, taking the entire ship with utter amazement. Her eyes just seemed to glow at everything around her.

"I'm actually in one of their ships," she said, almost giddy. "All those years hoping and wondering, and I'm finally inside one of them! Every single one of my colleagues back at the University would be so jealous right now. They'd also probably call me a heretic for working with humans, but screw'em. I'm here, they ain't. That's a victory in and of itself."

"Isn't this just a rinky dinky cargo ship?" Jack asked, not nearly as fascinated as everyone else seemed to be. "Wouldn't you prefer finding one of their badass battleships or something?"

"Please, any one of their ships is a treasure trove," Taq answered readily. "It doesn't really matter the function it served in life. What matters is what's inside and how much can be made off it."

"Well that's the part I can get behind," Jack seemed to agree. "Where's the high price stuff then? Or their armory at least. I got dibs on the cool ancient rocket launchers."

"Jack, remember what we're here for," Shepard reminded her. "The relic first, everything else second."

The ex-con just huffed as she slung her shotgun over her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, just got to suck the fun out of fucking everything," she grumbled.

"Oh don't worry," Zek spoke up suddenly, as he edged over to Taq's side. "If my time with Taq taught me anything, it's the Forerunners had some pretty cool junk. You won't miss out on any of it, trust me. More accurately, trust Taq. This is her element after all."

Zek looked directly at the female Jackal now, his head leaning slightly towards her.

"And I have to say, it's good to be back in it with her," he said, trying to ratchet up the charm. "Just like the good old days. Makes you feel nostalgic, don't it?"

Taq shoved Zek's head away from her in disgust.

"You are not ruining this for me like you do everything else, Zek," she declared. "You sorry excuse flirting is not going to distract me in the slightest. Not when I'm standing inside the very pinnacle of my career."

"Come on," Zek insisted. "It wouldn't feel right if I wasn't here. You got to admit that."

"I'll admit it wouldn't stink nearly as much," Taq snarled. "Now, shut it already, we have work to do."

Taq scampered off as Zek raised one of his arms and sniffed under it. He eventually just shrugged in befuddlement and followed Taq with the others. The female Jackal had soon set her sights on what appeared to be some kind of terminal on the wall. She dusted off the control panel and spread her fingers across the console. She beamed at it brightly, nodding her head. She tapped a few button and soon the terminal sprang to life, perhaps for the first time in who knew how long.

"This will do," she declared, before looking over to the Master Chief. "Hey, big guy, get you little synth friend over here."

Chief obliged, lumbering over to the console himself. He pulled Cortana's chip out of the back of his helmet and plugged her into the terminal. Cortana's form soon appeared over the holographic display, as data swarmed all around her.

"Mostly damage reports, hull integrity, atmospheric control, functional systems, lots of technical stuff," she listed off casually. "Security protocols are engaged though, can't access most of the systems off the bat. Data streams are a mess too, so that's a hurdle. The disconnection from the bridge is probably not helping either. I did find our mystery ship's name though. Welcome aboard the _Dauntless_ , everyone. Rough translation, but that's basically it."

"Anything on the relic at all?" Chief asked her.

"Like I said, I'm locked out of many of the systems," she replied. "If we find their main security console, we can deactivate it and speed up the process. Chances are though that a lot of the intel we're looking for, is not on the public channels. And... yeah, the bridge itself is locked down. Can't access it from here. Someone has to approve me access."

"We were going there anyway," Taq said rather plainly. "Just keep pooling through the data you got on hand for now. Let us know if you find anything we can use."

"Already on it," Cortana assured her. "This isn't my first time infiltrating a Forerunner system. Just find me that security room and I can get this done much faster."

"Then we should get under way ourselves," Shepard concurred. "Let's form into our search pattern and check this ship over top to bottom. That relic is in here somewhere and we're gonna find it."

* * *

Jackals usually scampered all over the place, but Taq seemed almost possessed. She couldn't stop herself from running between the various terminals strewn throughout the halls. She had Cortana attempt to activate each one and she started reading whatever preliminary information came up. The Master Chief just tried to keep up. They couldn't have her just suddenly run off without them after all. Thankfully, the ever prudent alien archaeologist did slow down to keep making notes for her.

"Log entry seven-zero-six-delta, my theory on propulsion is all but confirmed," she said jubilantly, speaking in her wrist recorder. "This ship's systems have records concerning the function of their reaction drives, detailing the harnessing of virtual particles as a means of rapid transit. Even without a Slipspace drive active, they could travel the length of an entire cluster in mere days. Not weeks, days! Just on their main propulsion systems alone. It lends credence to my other theory concerning this ship's construction. If they can harness that kind of energy, they must have had an extremely advanced manufacturing method. One capable of uniformed interchangeable design. Must consult old thesis later, right now, I need more information."

Taq moved over to another console and began pulling up whatever files she could. Chief could only stare at her and try to figure out what she was attempting to accomplish. They were here for the Forerunner Relic, right? Did it really matter how this old ship could fly? Then again, he wasn't the expert on this, as she had made very clear earlier.

"She kind of reminds me of Halsey," Linda suddenly spoke up beside him. "She's thrown herself completely into her work."

"She's a lot more animated than Halsey," Cortana argued as she appeared on a nearby console's display. "I can't remember ever seeing her acting excited over anything."

"That is true," Linda admitted. "She was a lot more analytic than this."

Chief did not want to dwell too much on Halsey. It just made him think about Reach, which he really didn't need right now. He and Shepard would figure that out later, right now they had to focus on this mission. To get his mind off it, he tried to ask Cortana another question that was burning at the back of his mind.

"Have you found anything else concerning this ship's stated mission in the system?" He asked her. "Other ships in the fleet, who sent them, who might have shot them down?"

"Nothing I can access," Cortana admitted. "In fact, I'm not entirely sure the ship was shot down. What damage reports I'm bringing up show no signs of outward hull damage in the records before the actual crash. Then again, I'm still not able to access all the systems. A lot of it is still locked off. I've requested EDI to help me run extra probes into the network, but nothing is budging. This place is locked up even tighter than Halo. They really didn't want to risk anyone finding out what they were doing on this boat."

"If that's the case, then this relic is probably as big a deal as we're all thinking it is," Linda reasoned. "You don't turn your crash site into a black site if you don't have something really important to hide. I bet you they activated those advanced security protocols when they hit the ground."

"Well, given how they seemed to know they'd be abandoned if they went down, that's very likely," Chief concurred, turning back to Cortana. "Can you at least access any crew logs? They could probably give us an idea of what happened."

"I've found some, Taq asked me to transfer them over to her files for further study," the AI confirmed. "However, most of it is of a personal nature and highly cryptic. It seems the Forerunners were big on talking in riddles a lot. I should've expected as much when I was hanging out in their big death ring. A lot of it falls in line with Shepard's theory on why they were headed for the Wormhole. They're mostly talking about their species dying, doom and gloom, how they'll never see home again. Not in those exact words, but given what we know thanks to Halo, it's not hard to figure out what they're referencing."

Their fight against the Flood, their losing fight. Chief supposed they had at least something in common with the Forerunners in that respect. That was why this mission was so important. If the relic was a weapon, as everything seemed to suggest, then maybe it could give them an edge. Chief suddenly thought that maybe he could suggest testing it out on the Covenant over Reach, an excuse to go back there. He quickly rejected that thought. He still didn't know what kind of weapon it was. He didn't want to get his hopes for an easy answer just because of this mission.

He still did not like that they didn't know how or why this ship crashed. Sure, the perpetrators could be long dead, but that was the problem. In the back of his mind he kept worrying that it was possibly the result of the Flood catching up to these ships. Maybe that was just paranoia, but after Halo it felt warranted. You couldn't be certain what this place was hiding.

Chief was so lost in his thoughts, he almost missed that Taq had moved on to a nearby door. She had pulled out her energy axe and stuck it in between the slit in the middle. She had pulled it slightly open, but she just couldn't seem to manage it the whole way. She quickly looked over to the two Spartans and motioned them over with her head.

"Well don't stand there gawking, help me get it open!" She demanded.

Chief and Linda just looked at one another, nodded and moved to assist. They grabbed at either side of the door, placing their fingers in the slightly open slit. They then pulled hard towards them and within moments, the doors were forced clean open. Taq offered a quick words of thanks before rushing inside the small dark room beyond. The commotion had garnered the attention of Tali, Shepard and Kat who had only been a few feet away when the whole display started.

"Did she find something?" Shepard asked as he approached.

"Sure sounds like it," Chief said with a simple shrug.

The group piled into the room, crowding around Taq as she looked a large console near the back. Chief turned his rifle's flashlight on to take a quick view around the darkened room. He could see what looked to be some kind of resting place next to the wall, similar to a cryotube, a small sitting area of sorts on the opposite side and the work desk with the console that Taq was currently lording over.

"That terminal over there gave me a directory," Taq quickly explained. "This room belong to the ship's equivalent of a chief engineer. Our first significant crewmember's living space, no doubt loaded with information. Synth, can you get connected?"

"I have a name," Cortana said, appearing on the console somewhat peeved. "You could use it. But to answer your question, yes. Give me a moment to re-route power to it."

"Yes, yes, fine, just hurry," Taq insisted. "This has potentially valuable data I need."

"Will it tells us where to find the relic?" Kat asked.

"Maybe," Taq said, picking up what looked to be some small modules strewn across the desk. "But more likely it will impart on us something of near equal value."

Chief suddenly realized that this was detour from their main mission. He probably should've suspected that, given Taq seemed hungry to research every nook and cranny of this ship. Shepard was clearly a bit more annoyed than he was though.

"Taq, we need to stay focused on why we're here," he told her. "We'll have time for sidetracks later, after we secure the bridge."

"Commander, relax," the Jackal replied. "This is important. We need to know more about this ship if we're going to effectively navigate and study it. Besides, these data modules are worth the effort alone."

"What's in them?" Linda asked. "Weapons schematics? Ship designs?"

"Stories," Taq declared with an near giddy attitude. "Forerunner reading material! A terrific find!"

She opened one of said modules to reveal a small blaze of light. It twisted itself into knots, flared brightly, twirled around like a vortex. Taq almost seemed entranced, but was quickly torn away from it. She handed it towards Tali.

"Here, have the synth in your omni-tool data transcribe that one," she ordered. "It looks like a creation text. See if the robot can pull any substantial images from it when he's done with that download feed on the console."

Tali looked at the Jackal a bit incredulously. She then looked at Shepard.

"Wade," she said with a snarl.

The Commander instantly got the message of the tone and he agreed with it.

"Taq, we're here help you, but you can't just order us around," he explained to her. "That's technically my job."

"Your job is to help me," Taq replied. "Forerunner texts go for insane amounts on the artifact black market. Plus, after I digitize and copy the record, I can use it for my personal studies. Once I figure out whether it's mythology or a historical document of course."

"I respect your passion for the job, but we're not here so you can line your credit account," Tali informed her. "If you want me to get DOT to help you with this, the least you could do is say please."

Taq sighed greatly at that and finally turned around to face them all.

"Listen, I get it, this is a military operation to you people," she relented. "To me though, it's the culmination of a lifetime of work. Skulking in ruins, out-running Covenant officials, breaking my back opening tombs, it has all led to this. I'm in a Forerunner ship, every piece of this place is valuable. Not just in credits, but in knowledge. Which also can get you a lot of credits too, but that's beside the point. You want the relic, I do too. I haven't forgotten that, but this is my chance to look at Forerunner technology and finally prove so much about who they were. I need to take every opportunity I get in here. You'll get your relic, I promise. Just let me work."

There was a moment of calm as the group silently contemplated the female Jackal's words. Chief himself didn't doubt her abilities, or her clear zeal for this sort of work. However, she did need a bit of prodding if they were going to keep on schedule.

"We can give you your room to work," Shepard finally stated. "And we will work with you, but not for you. On my watch, we act as a team. Understand?"

"Fine, just so long as we remember this is still my show," Taq said putting her hands up slightly. She then turned to Tali. "If you find time, can you please have your... DOT data transcribe that module for me?"

"We will see what we can do," Tali answered somewhat graciously. "I wouldn't mind being able to do some of my own research on this tech."

Taq seemed a bit surprised at that.

"Really? You have an interest in the Forerunners too?" She asked inquisitively.

"Somewhat," Tali said with a slightly shrug.

"And for the record," Cortana spoke up suddenly. "My AI matrix was based on one of humanity's leading Forerunner experts. So there's quite a few people more than capable of keeping up with you on this mission, even if one of them is just a synth."

That was when the console itself powered on and Taq's childlike grin returned.

"Well in that case," she told the quarian and the AI. "This might interest you both then."

Cortana reappeared on the console as Taq began opening files.

"The logs on this terminal aren't as protected as the others," she explained. "I have general full access. It should help me in speeding up the process with the rest of the systems. For now, I think I've found what Taq is looking for."

"Yes, you have, thank you," the Jackal quickly replied as she pulled up an image on-screen.

What they now found themselves looking at were a series of three-dimensional images detailing the ship. Pieces of it slowly came into existence as the image rolled around. In the corner, a glowing bright flash of light resonated. As Taq pressed it with her finger, the light appeared in the center, with text surrounding it. The image of the ship slowly emerged from the light, bit by bit. Taq seemed ecstatic. Tali in the meantime began trying to transcribe the text.

"It... it says something about digital construction," she said, trying to decipher it. "Some sort of location, production unit, I'm not sure. I think it's describing how the ship was built."

"Right on the credit chip," Taq assured her. "What you're looking at is the ship's construction work log. Possibly uploaded to record the precise details of it's creation for future reference on behalf of the Chief Engineer. The text describes used material, hardlight constructs, formation and potential design reconfiguration. In layman's terms, it's telling you how the ship was made. What's important is the big glowing thing it's coming out of."

"Why?" Linda asked. "Isn't that just some funny graphic."

Taq shook her head.

"No, look at these text letters here, at the bottom," she said pointing. "Translation is rough, but it's a directive serial number for what created this ship. I've been looking for confirmation of this for awhile, now I have it. The Design Seeds existed."

"What's a design seed?" Tali asked.

"Forerunner technology, one of their most advanced pieces," Taq explained eloquently. "I've found references to it in Forerunner ruins, but never discovered a proper confirming source. This proves it, the Forerunners didn't just create ships out of nothing like the idiots in the Covenant claim. No, they reformed matter. They used design seeds to quickly and efficiently build their fleet and their structures. Enabling them to spread out across the stars in record time. They could manufacture whole ships, like this, in days. Not years, days. Maybe sometimes hours, depending on the size."

"Wait a second," Kat said raising her robotic hand. "Are you telling us that the Forerunners were able to convert matter at will to build ships with? Massive ships in fact? This whole place took days to build?"

"How else would you explain their ability to manufacture massive structures and vessels in any conceivable amount of time?" Taq questioned. "The Forerunners needed a process that could convert any matter they found into what they needed to build their empire. The Design Seeds were this method. This data shows detailed information on the precise construction of the ship and potential reconfiguration settings based on that very construction process! It wasn't magic, it wasn't divine will, they had the most powerful form of technology in all he cosmos, period!"

"It's just a little much to take in," Kat explained. "The power required to convert matter on that scale would be enormous."

"You blew up a ringworld capable of apparently killing all life in the galaxy," Taq reminded her. "Is it really that hard to believe they found a way to do this very thing?"

"Not really, I'm just wondering the full implications of this," Kat informed her. "I don't suppose this Design Seed would be our relic?"

"Hardly, far too commonplace for this much secrecy and security," Taq answered. "The only reason we probably haven't found one ourselves is likely because they were all destroyed more or less."

Chief could understand why that would be the case. If these Seeds could create ships from any material en masse, you'd be in some big trouble if the enemy ever got their hands on one. An enemy like, perhaps, the Flood. Who would then use the Design Seeds to make their own fleet to challenge you and infect more worlds. Easier to destroy them rather than take the risk of one being captured.

"My people would probably give anything to have a device that could just make ships out of raw material," Tali noted aloud. "If it's true, Forerunner society must've been incredible at it's peak. They had technology we can scarcely dream of."

"Didn't help them much in the end though," Linda quickly added.

"I'm assuming these Design Seeds could create anything?" Shepard asked.

"As long as it was programmed with the proper schematics, yes, it could create anything," Taq confirmed. "The fewer materials, the easier and faster the construction. I'd like to upload these files to our computers for further study if possible. I kinda want to know more about these configurations it seems to be talking about."

"You'll have a lot to go over," Cortana cautioned. "I was doing some cross-referencing during your history lesson. Apparently, whoever was working here had a lot files concerning your design seed on hand. I think they were studying up on it."

Cortana brought up said files and there were quite a lot of them. Taq leaned in over the console to get a better look, grimacing as she did. There were several images of what one could presume were Design Seeds, but they were different in size, shape and even appearance. Chief supposed it made sense, depending on what you were making, the seed would probably look different.

"There's a lot to go over here, it will take me too long to translate it all," Taq informed them. "Syn- ... Cortana, could you upload this to my personal files? I'll need to figure this all out later. I'd like to know why a Forerunner was doing research on Design Seeds."

"Same," Kat added. "Why would someone need that much information on a piece of technology that sounds like it was used in everyday common life?"

"School project? Hobby?" Shepard suggested. "You know, like building bird houses."

Everyone just slowly looked to the Commander. Even through their helmets, you could guess the expression on their faces ranged from incredulous or puzzlement. Shepard instantly got a bit defensive.

"Don't look at me like that, people still build those," he argued.

"Yeah, in the boy scouts," Cortana said sardonically.

"Could be worse," Kat suggested. "Could've compared it to scrap-booking."

"I'd have said stamp collection myself," Linda added.

"Playlists," Tali suddenly chimed in. "He really likes making playlists."

"Fine, I'm a dork, I admit it," Shepard groaned. "Are you all quite done?"

Before the discussion could go further, Legion saved the Commander from further embarrassment. The Geth lumbered into the doorway, it's big blue eye attracting immediate attention.

"Shepard-Commander, we have completed designated task," it announced. "After running deciphering program, we have uncovered something of interest."

"What is it, Legion?" Shepard asked in kind.

"Final diagnostic report from vessel's systems indicates a catastrophic engine failure," Legion explained. "Shortly after, mayday and distress signals were activated. It is highly possible this was the cause of the vessel's crash landing."

"It walks, it talks and it can even do archaeological analysis," Taq warmly chuckled in delight. "The wonders of technology never cease. I should've started hiring synths sooner."

Aloof as she seemed, Taq did sound interested in Legion's find though. Chief felt the same way, they needed to know why this ship crashed in the first place. If the clues led them to the engine room, then that was probably where they'd find their answer.

"Did the logs say anything about what caused the failure?" The Spartan asked aloud.

"Negative, not in precise terms," Legion replied. "However, diagnostic suggests damage was not from an external source."

That left two possibilities, mechanical failure or sabotage. Chief wasn't sure which one he'd rather it be. He did know though that it was best not to let this go unexplored.

"We should divert one of the search teams to check out the engine room, sir," Chief told Shepard. "Figure out what exactly happened in there if possible."

"Agreed," Taq added. "We need a complete history of this ship's lifespan if we're going to get anywhere with this excavation. Also, it might help us find the relic of course."

Shepard just nodded and activated his comm-link. He knew the general search pattern after all, he'd have the best idea of who to divert.

"Samara, this is Shepard," he began. "We might have found something. I need your party to divert to the engine room, it's closest to your position."

" _At once, Shepard,"_ the asari answered.

Shepard acknowledged the reply and returned his look to the others.

"Alright, we should go," he told them. "Taq, finish up here, then let's get back on schedule. The bridge is still a ways from."

"Don't worry, this won't take but a minute," the Jackal assured. "Promise."

They piled out of the room, with just as many questions as answers still buzzing in their minds. Chief tried to comfort his thoughts with the knowledge that the further they went in, the more answers they'd uncover. Of course, he also kept wondering if they'd like what they would eventually find.

* * *

The engineering decks were a mess, massive amounts of what appeared to be scoring damage across the walls. Kowalski had seen enough of that in his career to recognize it wasn't exactly from a plasma gun. He supposed he shouldn't be too surprised, the Forerunners probably had an energy source that was a lot more efficient than plasma. He couldn't exactly tell if the scoring was from a weapon or perhaps some kind of overload though. All he could say for sure, was that something had gone down here.

"You know, when I signed up, they didn't tell me we'd be pulling ancient alien ship detail," Ellingham said grumbling. "This xenoarchaeology stuff is usually ONI's wheelhouse I hear."

"Well, they're a billion or so lightyears away right now, so we're it," Kowalski reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah," Ellingham relented. "Don't get me wrong, dude, this is pretty fucking cool. But after Halo, I get a little freaked concerning anything involving the Forerunners. Also, the company ain't exactly great either."

Ellingham pointed over his shoulder to a group of Jackals pecking and pawing at various bits of junk on the ground.

"Is this valuable?" One asked his friend, picking up some kind of tube.

"The fuck do I know if it is?" The other replied. "Just put with the miscellaneous pile. We're not after scrap here, we're looking for their killsticks and shit."

Kowalski couldn't deny that the Jackals did make him uneasy at times. Especially when kept talking about how they wanted to find some Forerunner guns. Sure, he kept reminding himself that the birds weren't out to kill them and that they were already armed anyway, but he kept worrying about one of them activating something that shot their head off. That female Jackal's speech about the dangers of that at the briefing had gotten that possibility stuck in his head.

Thankfully, they weren't too rowdy. Partly because of Zek being around. Whenever he was nearby he started micro-managing to the nth degree. It didn't take long for Kowalski spot him near a door organizing a Jackal technician crew.

"Come on, come on," he pressed. "How long does it take to re-attach some wires?"

"It's not wires, sir," the technician said. "It's like... micro-fibers and diodes and transistors and other shit I don't even have a name for."

"Just tell if you're close already," Zek insisted.

As if on cue, the door slid clean open, making both Jackals jump.

"Uh, apparently I am," the bird-brained engineer answered in disbelief.

"Solid work there, bud," Zek congratulated, patting him on the back. "See? You don't really need a Huragok after all."

"Would still make my life easier," the techie grumbled.

The Pirate Leader either ignored or did not hear his lackey, as he quickly turned to the other Jackals nearby.

"Alright, let's get in there," he ordered. "Taq says these storerooms are full of all kinds of neat electronic stuff. Catalog and sort, people. And no taking anything for yourself just yet, okay? Retz will know, believe me. He's scary good like that."

The Jackals filed into the storeroom in a strangely more orderly fashion than Kowalski had come to expect from them. Zek was clearly keeping them more directed, on task, obeying Taq's strict guidelines. From what he had heard, the female Jackal had once been Zek's girlfriend and the pirate still carried a torch for her. Maybe he was trying to impress her by finding something cool in all this junk.

"You know, I used to find them scary when we ran into them," Ellingham spoke up. "Now? They're like a walking comedy club. Only the joke is mostly on us and it's getting really old."

"Better than getting shot at by them," Kowalski argued. "Either way, I wouldn't worry too much about them."

"Because their boss is here and is keeping them in check?" Ellingham asked.

"Nah," Kowalski assured him, pointing off to the side. "Because she's here."

A few feet away, standing at attention, was Samara. Currently she was focused on the efforts of the Marines cutting through the door to the main engine room. However, she occasionally looked back and glared at any Jackals nearby. If they saw her doing this, and they usually did, they instantly scuttled away to escape her gaze. Zek and Retz had made it very clear to their men that Samara was "crazy" and should be avoided. After hearing what she had done on the Hollow, none of them decided to test that statement for themselves. Kowalski wondered if Shepard had asked her to go along with their search party to keep the Jackals in line for that very reason, or if Samara had volunteered to do it herself.

To Samara's credit, she had not outwardly threatened any of the pirates. Her look seemed to say everything she needed to say. Basically, I don't trust any of you and I'm looking for an excuse. That's at least what Kowalski read in her eyes whenever he caught her staring a Jackal down. Kowalski knew why she felt the way she did, even if she had supported the plan to team-up with them to escape Halo. She had explained it to him as they were preparing for the mission just that morning.

"They are criminals, they are unjust," she had told him. "Were I not bound by my code to Shepard they would be dead. Them and the batarians. They have killed, plundered or enslaved innocents, They have lost the right to mercy. The fact we require them to fight a greater evil sickens me, I bear it only in the hopes it lead to the end of the Covenant. It does not change the reality, lesser evil is still evil. The Code is clear on this. I will work with them so long as we are required to achieve justice for those the Covenant have murdered, nothing more."

It was the cold grim black and white morality that Kowalski had come to expect of Samara. There were no grays in the Justicar's world. Even she sounded like she acknowledged things weren't always so simple, it didn't change what the Code told her. Kowalski wasn't always sure whether that was stubbornness or conviction on her part. All he knew was that he wanted to better understand it. She had shown signs of conflict concerning her Code, but stayed steadfast in her belief her interpretation was just. Sometimes he wished he had her resolute sense of purpose.

"Yeah, her being around does ease my mind a bit," Ellingham admitted. "Her and Johnson, between them we're okay. Again though, it's a Forerunner ship. As annoying as the birds can be, they're not the biggest thing I'm worried about."

No one wanted to say the other F-word, but they were all thinking it. Halo was still fresh in everyone's mind. So when they heard they were visiting another Forerunner made thing, well, the images of undead friends coming back to kill you poured back into the forefront.

"Try not to worry," Kowalski insisted. "We got half the _Normandy_ down here and every Spartan to boot, both inside and out. We got this."

"Sure, sure, just keep an eye on the motion tracker is all I'm saying," Ellingham suggested. "Alright, I'm going back on console duty. Let me know when we crack that door. I wanna know how they flew this pile of shit back in the day as much as anyone."

Ellingham walked off, leaving Kowalski by himself. With no one else to talk to, he decided to see for himself how the door was coming. He walked up to Samara and Johnson, as they over saw the door cutting.

"Forerunners built their gear to last," Johnson observed aloud. "We should've been through by now."

"Perhaps we would if Holland had authorized the use of the Engineers," Samara suggested.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Johnson concurred. "His call though. Guess he didn't want them so close to the Jackals."

"I understand that concern, but I alone am more than adequate a precaution," the asari insisted. "These pirates would not escape my sight should they attempt foul play of any kind."

"It's not that he doesn't trust you," Johnson assured her. "I think that whole business with them stowaways still has him on edge."

Kowalski thankfully did not have to interrupt them to get into the conversation. It didn't take long for Samara to notice him.

"Private Kowalski," she greeted. "How are you faring?"

"Good, Sam, good," he assured her. "Ramirez found a data module of some kind plugged into one of the consoles. He's helping the techs unplug and catalog it now I think. How are things with the door?"

"Slow, but we're getting there," Johnson assured him. "Near as we can tell, everything is fused. Motors, power, whole deal. My guess is whatever went down in that room seriously screwed with all the surrounding systems."

"Any ideas on exactly what happened to the engines?" He asked them both.

"I presume mechanical failure unless proven otherwise," Samara answered. "There is nothing as of yet that concretely proves sabotage. What is certain is that beyond this door is the cause of this ship's untimely end."

Good, then they'd get a few answers on how exactly a ship this damn advanced ended up face-planted into the rocks. Maybe that would ease some of the concerns Ellingham and others had. With any luck, maybe the Relic was in there and had caused the engine failure itself. It sounded like the simplest explanation to him. Then they could pick it up and just go back to the carrier. No more skulking around the creepy ship.

"Any trouble from the birds?" Johnson asked him, chomping down on his cigar as he did.

"Nah, they're mostly keeping to their search vectors," he answered plainly. "If you ask me, Zek is keeping them focused on searching every nook and cranny for something that can make him a crap ton of credits. They don't have time to bother us."

"Well, I don't mind them staying out of the way, but I also wouldn't mind them sparing a helping hand to our side," Johnson responded. "They got quite a few bodies they could spare. Probably better this way though."

Kowalski just nodded, he didn't want to dwell too much on that.

"You ever been in a place like this before, Sam?" Kowalski asked the asari.

"More than a few times," she answered. "My travels across the galaxy inevitably led me to a number of exotic locations. Although, nothing seems to compare to this place. For what should be a mundane cargo vessel, this ship is built with a great deal of regal purpose."

"You'd think they'd just grab any old ship and run for the wormhole though," Johnson noted. "I mean, if the whole point was just this one little artifact, why not go smaller?"

"Given what Liara T'Soni has told us, it was not so simple," Samara informed him. "They probably meant to carry more than just this relic of power. Their civilization was ending, perhaps they hoped to start anew."

"What, you mean like they were going to colonize your dimension?" Kowalski asked inquisitively.

"I believe it is not out of the question," Samara answered astutely. "Their technology rivals that of even the ancient Protheans from our galaxy. It would have been fairly simple to start fresh. However, they clearly failed. One wonders at the cause, I imagine the Reapers played some role."

Johnson gave a knowing grunt at that remark.

"Yeah, your freaky killer dark space robot friends," he said, recalling what the asari was referencing. "You really think that these relics of power are what they're after? I mean, they're big time bad muthas, as I understand it. What they need with this old junk that they can't do themselves?"

"Shepard has disrupted their plans greatly," Samara noted. "Perhaps they seek to balance the scales once more in their favor."

"Sounds like they're scared of the Commander then," Kowalski said grinning. "Going out of their way like this just to get themselves an ace to play."

"I am not sure if the Reapers feel fear or desperation," Samara corrected him. "But if they do, it would be wise of them to fear Commander Shepard all the same."

As Samara spoke, the welding torch behind them ceased. The Marine kneeling beside the door with the cutter in hand looked up at them.

"We're through, sirs!" He reported.

"Good, stand back if you please," Samara requested.

The Marines did as asked and Samara placed her hands within the door's slit. Biotic energy suddenly surged through her limbs, extending out her fingertips. In one swift motion, she forced the doors aside. As she peered into the engine room, her gaze grew more concerned. She turned to Johnson with a grave expression.

"You best get some people in here, Sergeant," she told him. "There is much to see."

Johnson didn't ask what she meant, he just followed her orders.

"Ellingham, Agley, Pearson, Ramirez, get your butts over here," he ordered. "We got something!"

Kowalski could see his teammates moving through the crowd to join him at the door. Save for Ellingham who seemed to be lagging. This did not go unnoticed by Johnson of course.

"Ellingham! Move it!"

The Private finally got it in gear and rushed over to Johnson.

"You weren't listening to BBR on full volume again, weren't you?" The Sergeant asked.

"Uh, no."

Johnson clearly didn't believe him and was soon proven right in that assumption. He pulled up on Ellingham's helmet. When he did, music instantly began to pour out of it.

"Rolling Stones, 'Satisfaction', 1965," the Sergeant listed clearly. "Good song. You know what will satisfy me though? You getting your ass in there already! Turn it down or shut it off, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," Ellingham answered frantically.

Johnson pushed him forward by the shoulder, while Kowalski had to keep himself from laughing too much.

"That man is scary," Ellingham stated flatly.

"You were asking for it," Kowalski told him. "Be more careful, or he's going to rescind listening privileges for everyone while on duty."

They walked into the engine room and found themselves in what could best be described as a crime scene. What they assumed was probably once the engine had more holes in it than one could count. Hell, it was little more than melted slag. Whatever the engines once looked like before were, no one could really recognize them now. No wonder the outside was such a mess, the core had seemingly just blown up. It didn't overload though, it was torn apart and wrecked.

"Think they just had a loose screw?" Ramirez asked as he looked the engine over.

"No," Pearson answered. "Hell, I think they long evolved past screws at this point. This is something else."

Samara was over near the edge of the platform they were on, her eyes focused squarely on a series of consoles. Each of them looked fried and bore similar energy scoring marks that peppered the walls outside. Kowalski looked past her to see other pieces of machinery strewn about the room, all of it slag, burnt through, smashed.

Mechanical failure suddenly seemed less likely.

"Someone wanted this ship on the ground bad," Kowalski lamented.

"The damage does seem far too extensively directed to be of a simple malfunction," Samara concurred. "The critical machinery is destroyed, but the room's walls and ceiling are relatively intact. This was deliberate, focused."

There was a sudden loud whistle from behind. Everyone looked to see Zek flanked by two of his crewmates taking in the scene for themselves.

"Someone did a major number on this place," he said, sounding a bit disappointed. "So much for stripping their engine for parts."

"I am sure we are all saddened by your inability to profit off this one room," Samara informed him, her tone the closest to sarcasm that Kowalski had ever seen with her.

"Hey just pointing out the obvious," he stated. "We aren't going to find anything of much use here. Taq is going to be so disappointed. I bet she'd have loved to study their propulsion systems up close. They're probably fried too though, given the state of everything."

There was a sudden crash, as Agley bumped backwards into a console. Bits of electronic equipment fell to the floor below, as he pointed his weapon upwards.

"The hell is that one's problem?" Zek asked, as confused as anyone else.

"Agley?" Pearson spoke up. "Something wrong?"

Agley lowered his weapon slowly, his composure returning ever so slightly.

"Uh, I uh, I thought I heard something from that vent," he explained. "Least I think it's a vent."

Zek motioned one of his men to take a look. The pirate looked into the open crawlspace in the wall, his plasma pistol pointed down into the darkness. The bird poked his head back out again and shook it.

"Nothing," he claimed. "Jumpy human is hearing things."

"I am not jumpy," Agley argued. "I thought I heard something."

"Relax, human." Zek cut in. "Creepy old wreck from a bygone era. "No shame in being a bit scared at every shadow. Is still a bit funny though. What with all the armor and shit you wear. You'd think you;d feel a bit more secure in your skin."

Zek chuckled lightly as he walked off, his fellow pirates joining him as they conducted their own search of the engine room. Samara glared at them as they walked off. Keeping her eyes on them, she activated her comms.

"Cortana, this Samara," she stated. "I'm sending you a feed of the engine. It was likely sabotaged, some kind of fight erupted. Best you inform Shepard."

As Samara reported in, Kowalski looked to Ellingham.

"Guess Agley's nerves or working up again, huh?" Kowalski asked.

"Maybe," Ellingham answered. "Lord knows he's a bit paranoid, but he's still a Marine. He's got good sense of heightened awareness, same as the rest of us."

"Sure you ain't just saying that cause you're creeped out by this place too?" Kowalski questioned skeptically.

"Okay, I'll grant you that, but it's not without reason," Ellingham informed him. "With all this poking and prodding we're doing about this ship, none of us seems to be asking the fairly obvious question here."

"Which is?" Kowalski asked, not entirely sure what he was getting at.

"This ship crashed eons ago and hasn't been disturbed since, right?" He stated bluntly. "So, where the hell is the crew? Why aren't we seeing any bodies?"

It was a good point, you'd think they'd find a skeleton or something. Then again, there was a potential, fairly logical reason for that.

"Maybe they just crumpled to dust," Kowalski suggested. "I mean, it's been how many years since they all died? Or maybe when Halo activated it disintegrated them."

"Probably," Ellingham relented. "Or maybe something else got to them first."

"Okay now you're being paranoid," Kowalski told him bluntly.

"Let's hope you're right, bud," Ellingham responded. "Let's really hope you're right."

* * *

The batarians moved through the cargo compartment methodically, their omni-tools scanning for any spike in energy. Taq explained the artifact would put out a constant unique signature. Varvok watched as the zeroed in on one such signature which resided in a container. Using low-yield breaching charges, hey blasted the locks off the container and threw open the lid. They did not find the relic within, but just more strange machinery. The energy from their dormant power systems had been what sent the scanners wild, not the supposed Artifact they were searching for. Another container, another false lead. It was becoming predictable.

"What exactly are we looking for, sir?" Asked one of his men.

"Taq claims we'll know it when it see it," Varvok said groaning. "It should stand out among the rest of the clutter."

The closest they had found to something matching that description were several boxes full of crystal-like objects. However, considering there we so many, they were probably not unique. They were probably a power source, given how much energy they gave off. They had also found robotic parts, various pieces of strange angular machinery and a great many pods that probably served different purposes. Varvok had no idea what any of it was, although he imagined Taq did.

He did his best not to complain too much. That would get them nowhere. As of now, he was just going to follow Taq's request. They'd search the compartments, they'd catalog everything and then leave it to her to figure out what it was all for. They were soldiers, they had a job to do, they'd leave the mystery solving to people who knew more about this Forerunner junk than him. Besides, after Halo, he had gotten his fill of lurking around the extinct species' old tombs. He wanted to get his men out of here as soon as possible. The quickest way to accomplish that was by working as fast as possible.

He had to admit though, he was curious. If this cargo ship was just supposed to be transporting that relic, why all this extra stuff? The fellow batarian beside him, one Sergeant Kragfor, voiced his thoughts for him.

"I'm starting to think, what with all this material they brought along," he began cautiously, "that the Forerunners had other motives than just escaping the Flood. Seems like they wanted to restart their Empire, colonize new worlds for their own."

"If they did, their exodus did not prove so fruitful," Varvok told him. "I won't fault them for thinking they could accomplish it though. Their technology certainly would've given them the edge over any species they encountered."

"It just makes me wonder what would've happened if they pulled it off," Kragfor elaborated. "Would we all be their subjects or something right now?"

"Best not to dwell to much on what might have happened, especially considering how long ago this ship crash in the first place," Varvok said rather plainly. "Right now, we should focus on the hope that their failure to escape may give us a chance at defeating the Covenant. So long as this Relic of Power is everything they claim it to be."

Given the massive destruction Halo had apparently been capable of, he had little reason to doubt that it was. Varvok's only concern was if it was usable or if they could even figure out how it worked. As much of an expert as Taq seemed to be, she had never run into one of these things from the sound of it. Determining how it functioned was not going to be an easy. Still, better they had it than the Covenant.

"I'm still hoping we find their weapons cache," Kragfor claimed. "I want to see if their guns can give us the edge we need."

"They probably won't be down here," Varvok told him. "More likely they'll be stored separately, away from the rest of the cargo."

"Why don't we go track it down then, sir?" Kragfor asked. "We could get first dibs on all that ancient weaponry."

Varvok quickly shook his head at that.

"We would inevitably have to share it, Sergeant," he reminded him. "Remember, we are working with the humans at this juncture. Everything we find, we share. That is pretty much the deal."

"I wish you wouldn't remind me," Kragfor huffed. "This whole situation sickens me."

"You and many others," Varvok assured him. "But we have few options. To stop the Covenant's tendrils from strangling our people, we must defeat them here. For now, that means assisting the humans. If I had a better option, believe me, I would take it."

"I know, sir, I know," Kragfor relented patiently. "It's just at times I wonder if we're making any real progress. If we're having any effect. The Covenant just seem powerful and the humans are already struggling as it is."

"Many of the Hegemony's enemies have seemed powerful yet we have endured," Varvok told him adamantly. "This is just one more trial, one we shall overcome as we have all obstacles."

"The men believe in you, sir," Kragfor insisted. "It's just, well, it wouldn't hurt to know we're having effect of some kind. Hell, knowing we have method to reach our goal would be something."

Varvok couldn't argue with that. He wished he had a better plan, a better means of getting to where they wanted to be. Right now, it was mostly relying on doing what the UNSC asked of them. He didn't like that, not one bit. They needed something bigger to push for, to aim for. His men were behind him, he knew that. He just wish he had more to offer than just words, some way to reward them for their faith. He'd have to provide something soon or risk losing the confidence of his men entirely.

He was suddenly stirred from his thoughts when they heard a terrific crash. Varvok and Kragfor rushed towards the origin point of the sound. They discovered several metal containers smashed open on he ground, the mechanical contents within strewn about he area. One batarian was helping another up to his feet as they approached.

"What happened?" Varvok questioned them.

"We don't know," one of them admitted. "Suddenly the whole pile just fell on top of us. We barely managed to avoid getting crushed."

"We need to be more careful, this whole ship is a little off kilter," Kragfor noted. "Us stomping around probably isn't helping."

Maybe, Varvok thought, maybe, but it all seemed a bit strange. Varvok looked to where the boxes had seemingly fallen from. Some kind of shelf above them with a railing along the side. Said railing had been damaged, so clearly the boxes had no opposition left to keep them in place. It just felt off that such a thing had so randomly happened. And then there was a strange smell about the place, a burning sensation. He looked closer to the railing itself and thought he saw a bit of smoke rising from it.

It couldn't have been cut though. No one else was in here but them. Perhaps the railing just gave way. What other explanation was there? And yet, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. It was far too similar to Halo, to the quarantined zones. Now he had another more immediate fear, one that resounded far greater than the dread of them losing their faith in him. Had he led his men right into the jaws of yet another horror?

* * *

She had never been one for this kind of creepy crap the _Normandy_ seemed to constantly get itself involved in. Jack hadn't forgotten how their infiltration of the Collector Ship had gone down after all. She doubted there were any killer bugs in here, but she'd seen enough derelicts by now to decide she hated them. Nothing good ever came out of exploring one. She probably would have felt better about all this if she was was working with the Marines on this one or if Garrus was down here instead of handling things on the surface with the Cheerleader. Instead, she was stuck with the ODSTs again, the asshole brigade as she had come to know it.

Yeah, there were decent guys among them, Buck for one. Most everyone else pissed her the fuck off. The bullshit protocol and jackbooted personalities were one thing, reminded her too much of Cerberus. The more important part to her though was that most of them were just looking for an excuse. Said excuse being that the second they found a reason to leave her to die, they'd take it. There was a time when she could've accepted that, but that was before she had found a real crew. These Drop Troop fucks reminded her too much of the dipshits who had used her all her life in one way or another.

They were all a bunch of ungrateful shitheads in her mind. Just because Shepard accepted help from some aliens to escape Halo, suddenly the _Normandy_ and everyone aboard her was a race traitor. Fuck them, for whatever the batarians and Jackals were, at least you knew where you stood. They were self-serving pricks, but at least they were honest. The ODSTs in general all talked like they were playing ball, but they were looking for an out. She didn't trust any of them. When the bullets started flying, she didn't want any of them watching her back.

Thankfully, she did have some of her crew with her, so it wasn't like Shepard had sent her off with these assholes alone. Zaeed was scary enough to keep the Troopers in check if need be. Thane was, of course, a goddamn assassin, and Jack knew he'd have her back. It was a strange feeling knowing that, maybe even comforting. All she knew was that she could rely on him, had since the damn swamp and the Flood. If anything went wrong in here with the Drop Troopers, Thane could handle it. Well, so long as she was there too, of course. She was the better biotic after all.

Right now they were in some sort of living space. At least she assumed it was anyway. It was a big open atrium with a lot of rooms off to one side or the other. With how big all this shit usually was, Jack was starting to wonder how tall the Forerunners were. Were they giants? Ten whole feet of creepy superior alien muscle? If so than maybe they couldn't blame the Covies too much for thinking they were Gods.

The ODSTs were conducting their search pattern, moving in and out of the nearby rooms. They were mostly cataloging what they found, personal items and the like. Strangely, no guns yet, but maybe they should've expected that. This was just a cargo ship, not really military. Maybe they didn't have guns. Then again, Jack supposed their guns would be unrecognizable to them.

"I was expecting we'd have found something cool by now," she stated, waiting for Buck to be done with the door. "Sweet armor, badass laser swords, hell, maybe some ancient vid game. All I'm seeing is a bunch of junk."

"To be fair, in a thousand years they're probably going to say the same about the stuff we use," Buck cautioned. "That and we're not the experts here. Taq's the one who knows all about this stuff's value. We're just doing the grunt work."

Another reason to hate this assignment. You were basically bored off your ass until something bad happened. Said something always involved you running for your life as well. Not that she didn't mind a good fight, but she liked knowing what she was getting into. Here, she didn't. She only knew that this place had some really terrible, shitty secret that was probably gonna get them all killed.

Buck finished cutting through the lock. He then forced the door open with the butt of his gun and the weight of his back. He flicked the light on his weapon and flashed it inside. Jack took a peak, only to see yet another private room of some kind. Tube of some kind in the corner, small desk, that was it. Not even a bunch of racy looking posters or discarded drinking bottles. Forerunners were either prudes or were just plain boring as fuck.

"There a body in that stasis pod?" Jack asked, hoping for something good.

Buck flashed his light over the pod expectantly, but soon shook his head.

"Nah, empty," he answered.

Jack groaned and knocked her head back against the wall.

"Worst shipwreck ever," she declared. "They didn't even have the decency to die in their fucking beds so I could know what they look like."

"I'm pretty sure they weren't really thinking about that at the time," Buck told her. "You want to take a look around? Might be more of those datadisks around with the cool pictures."

"I can get that just by getting high or looking at my omni-tool's screensaver," she told him. "You knock yourself out, I'm gonna see if Zaeed or Thane have found something before my brain dies."

Jack left Buck to his work, backed up by a few of his fellow ODSTs as she left. She passed by several search parties, already digging into every room they could open. She supposed that artifact could be anywhere, but she suspected it was nowhere here. Forerunners were as smart as everyone said than it was probably locked up tight somewhere on the bridge. They sure as shit wouldn't stick it with the working stiffs in their private rooms.

She found Thane and Zaeed not too far away, already searching another room. Thankfully it wasn't another stupid empty sleeping quarters. It looked like some sort of room full of bio-tanks, still filled with green fluid. Finally, she thought, something interesting for once in this stupid wreck.

"What's all this about?" She asked aloud.

"No idea," Zaeed admitted. "They sorta look like our food vats, but I don't think this is their kitchen."

Vats of unknown green stuff did not exactly offer much comfort. Luckily, Thane guessed her fears and alleviated them.

"There's nothing alive in it," he assured her. "The scanner picked up nothing. It's not holding any biological contaminants."

"Oh good, so no freaky science experiments or evil parasite monsters then," Jack noted. "That's one paranoid fear off my mind."

"Flood, no," Thane stated. "But it's possible some form of experiment was run here."

Jack expression morphed into a grimace.

"You have to ruin everything, don't you?" She asked.

"I'm just being truthful," Thane replied. "The scan shows this fluid contains properties similar to anti-biotics and our own medigel. It is possible this room served a medical purpose."

"Ah, so it's the infirmary," Zaeed presumed. "Makes sense it would be close to the main living space."

Jack looked to the vats once again, about five in total.

"Seems like they kinda overstuffed the room with these things," she noted. "Why? Were they that sick constantly?"

Thane looked over the pods himself, rubbing his chin a bit as he pondered. Jack waited for a bit longer, expecting him to just blurt out what he was thinking already. She got annoyed fairly quickly.

"What?" She asked, snapping at him. "Spit it out. I know you're just dying to."

"Forgive me, I'm not entirely certain," Thane explained. "But to me, it appears as if the extra Pods were not originally part of this room. The spacing between them, it appears... off. As if it was added later."

"What? Like after the crash or something?" Zaeed questioned.

"Possibly," Thane relented. "I cannot be certain. It is just that, this ship's design seems symmetrical in most cases. Here, it feels almost altered."

Jack gave the vats another look. On a second glance, they did seem a little off near the end. They were either too close together or too far apart, she couldn't tell for sure. That was good enough for you.

"If you think they're off I believe you," she told Thane. "Why'd they install extra in this room though?"

"Probably a lot of wounded after the crash," Zaeed suggested. "They probably got some extra out of storage, hooked them up in here and used them to speed the healing process along for some."

"Possible," Thane agreed. "But it still feels strange to do that when they're aware what Halo is about to do. They knew no rescue was coming, why do this at all? Something else was at work here."

Jack usually only relied on her own instincts, but she trusted Thane's almost as much at this point. He was an assassin after all. He had to have a good nose about these sorts of things, it was how he did his job. Plus, now someone else figured something was wrong with this stupid ship. So good, she didn't have to feel too paranoid if Thane didn't trust this place either.

"Maybe we should tell McKay about-"

Jack didn't get to finish her thought, as she heard something outside. An ODST shouting something aloud, calling people to his position. The trio left the room and rushed to the man's aid. Currently, he was standing in the middle of the room, his eyes locked on his wrist where his motion tracker was.

"What is it? What happened?" Buck asked him.

"I don't know, sir," he stated. "I got... I got a bunch of unidentified blips out of nowhere. They looked like they were around us, but, there was nothing there. And now, nothing is showing."

Buck looked at his own tracker, but saw nothing. However, where he or anyone else might've just shrugged it off as broken tracker before, this was a post-Flood world for them. Buck instantly took action.

"Check to see if that thing is working right, I'm calling McKay," he ordered.

The Sergeant clicked on his omni-tool and contacted the Lieutenant.

"Ma'am, we might have a situation here, seeing things moving that we can't see and all that," he informed her. "I'm suggesting we move up out of this sector and onto the next, preferably closer to you."

" _Better safe than sorry,"_ McKay agreed. _"I'll report this to Shepard's team. Keep your eyes on your trackers, report any other movement. Stay together and move to my sector."_

"Copy that," Buck replied before cutting the comm. "Everyone pack up and move, we are not staying here."

Now even more people were freaked out about this ship. Jack was suddenly feeling a lot better now that she didn't feel like the only one who had walked into a death trap. She still didn't like the stuff about the moving things that no one could see. That meant they were either beneath you, over you or invisible. None of those were good things. Especially the last one, that implied ghosts. That would probably be appropriate given their surroundings, but you couldn't really punch a ghost. So if it was that, she'd be at a real disadvantage.

"Please be something solid," she secretly whispered to herself. "Please be something I can rip apart like a ragdoll."

* * *

McKay helped force open the door alongside the team of ODSTs. It screeched loudly as they pushed their way inside. It finally locked in place with metallic clunk, allowing them entry at last. McKay switched on her flashlight to illuminate the darkened room, revealing a number of consoles and electronics equipment scattered about the area. By now, McKay was used to the look of Forerunner computer systems. This place was no different, especially with the large flat space in the middle of the room surrounded by the consoles. She assumed it was another one of their holographic image pads, similar to the ones they had found on Halo. It more than likely had an outline of the ship for them to look at, but with Taq's module and their prior scans, they really didn't need that.

No, they were here because of what the room was more than what was inside.

"We sure this is a security room?" Gilfolye asked.

"According to Taq's little map it is," McKay responded. "According to her, the Forerunners had very sophisticated defense systems, even aboard their cargo ships. We figure out how to get into this one and we might pinpoint their high security sections on the wreck."

Thus giving them a better idea of where to look for their little supposed super weapon. However, they first needed to solve the obvious problem, the lack of power in this room. You couldn't look at what was on a computer if it wasn't plugged in after all.

"Fan out and see if there's an on switch somewhere," McKay ordered. "I want to know what they knew."

The ODSTs quickly got to work, but McKay didn't want to fumble around in the dark looking for an answer to this. The sporadic reports she had been hearing of odd things going on around the ship in the search sectors made her uneasy. She imagined a few people were thinking Flood were involved, but she doubted that. Forerunner Security though, that could be the issue. Perhaps there were some Sentinels still floating around causing havoc and waiting for a signal to attack. If they could get into the security systems, maybe they could just shut them all down or, even better, prove that they were all just jumping at shadows so they could get on with the mission.

To do any of that though, they needed to get this place working. They had restored power to a lot of the ship when they got in here. Why was this place still turned off? McKay knew only one person who could answer that.

"McKay to Cortana," she said, opening a channel. "I'm in the ship's security room, what's left of it anyway. The power isn't on though. Can you help us out?"

" _One moment, Lieutenant,"_ Cortana offered in reply.

Things were silent for a few moments, but the AI soon returned with an answer to dilemma.

" _It looks like the security room is on a different power grid section,"_ she explained succinctly. _"I'll have to investigate why. Taq and Tali should be able to help. Hold position for now, we'll get back to you with a solution."_

"Copy that," McKay replied as a question suddenly popped into her head. "While I got you, how's your end of the search going so far?"

" _We've found a lot of empty rooms with a lot of old junk Taq claims could be worth a fortune,"_ Cortana mused. _"No sign of the real prize though. Shepard's team is closing on the break in the wreck though. It's just hop, skip and a jump to the bridge from there. We'll notify all teams once we reach it."_

"I know you will," McKay jovially assured her. "Good to know I'm not the only one stumbling around in the dark though. McKay, over and out."

As she closed the channel, Buck's team arrived outside the door. The Sergeant was quick to move to her side as his squad scanned the room with the others.

"Still nothing on the trackers," he told her. "Maybe it was just a malfunction."

"I'd really like to believe that, Buck," McKay informed him gravely. "But it never seems that simple when you're dealing with old Forerunner junk."

"Same," said Jack as she walked by. "Although I consider any alien ship that looks this fucking creepy bad news by default. Trust me, this kind of crap never ends well."

"We still have a mission to complete," McKay told her firmly. "I'm not bailing out now because of potential danger that might not even exist."

"Wasn't saying you should," the Ex-Con assured her. "I'm just letting you know, when this goes to shit, point me in the direction of said shit. Probably your best chance at surviving really."

"I'll take that strategy under advisement," McKay assured her. "Carry on."

Jack gave a very aloof salute and continued to prowl the room. McKay let it go, in her experience Jack didn't respond to any direct authority beyond Shepard's. That and she somewhat agreed with the former criminal. This would more than likely go bad, it was just a question of how and when.

"Has anyone else reported any disturbances since your motion tracker issue?" McKay asked Buck.

"Nothing involving their own trackers at least," he answered. "I figured we'd have picked something up on the scanners though."

"We weren't really scanning for life forms or movement," McKay explained. "We just wanted a layout. Besides, it's possible that whatever was in here was dormant before we stepped inside."

"Yeah, that doesn't really make me comfortable," Buck told her.

McKay raised her hand in a calming gesture.

"It's probably not as bad as you think," she tried to reassure him. "I'm thinking this is, at worst, a few Sentinels flying around. You know, those robots we encountered on Halo. We crack this room, we shut them down and we're good."

"Well, let's hope it's that easy then," Buck said with a shrug.

"Probably be better off if we were doing this by ourselves."

McKay recognized the voice instantly, Lendon. For whatever reason, he saw fit to inject himself into the conversation. McKay resisted the urge to shut him up before he got further, even though she knew what he was about to say. She did not want to look like a petty tyrant in front of the men, not after what had gone down the other day with the grenade investigation.

"All these Jackals and their Batarian friends running around, I bet it's them causing trouble," Lendon suggested. "Or at the very least they're stepping on our toes while we look around."

"We needed the extra hands and they have a claim to this ship themselves," McKay reminded him. "We couldn't cut them out of this operation, we need them."

"That keeps coming up constantly, that we need them for these things," Lendon growled. "I don't remember needing any of them before. We managed just fine, better even, since we didn't have to keep watching our backs."

"Enough, Sergeant," McKay commanded, finally giving into her frustration. "You've made your point, I've noted it. You don't like working with aliens, everyone knows that. But that's the job right now, so suck it up already and stop complaining because I'm getting tired of hearing it constantly."

Lendon didn't respond right away, but he eventually reluctantly nodded.

"Yes, ma'am," he grumbled. "Shutting up, ma'am."

He walked away, getting back to what he was supposed to be doing. McKay let out a disgruntled sigh. She honestly, in some small way, hoped Lendon and the other former mutineers would drop this shit already. That what had happened with the grenades would get them to accept they weren't helping anything. Instead, the whole incident didn't even seem to phase them. They still hated the Alliance and they still didn't trust her command. She was starting to wonder if they ever would.

"Couldn't help overhearing," the gruff voice of Zaeed Massani stated. "Still trouble in Drop Trooper land, eh?"

The old mercenary walked up beside Buck, his gun slung over his shoulder.

"It's a daily problem at this point," McKay grimaced.

"If you want my advice, you may want to take a page out of Shepard's book for this," he suggested. "When I first joined my usual sense of professionalism got lost a bit. The Commander had punch it back into me, both literally and figuratively. Sounds like some of your people need the same."

"I wish it were that simple," McKay told him. "They got it in their heads at this point that I'm the traitor, not them. I can try disciplining them, but that only seems to reinforce that I'm the enemy. I'm not sure how I'm going to win their loyalty back."

"For now, maybe it's best to get their respect more than anything," Zaeed suggested. "Loyalty can follow later. They need to remember that you're in charge first. How you do that is up to you."

The old man made sense, maybe she did need their respect first and foremost. That didn't mean they'd suddenly like her, but at least they would stop questioning her position. She had their respect before, when she had trained and led them on missions. Building all that back up was clearly going to be a challenge. She had to remind them why Silva made her Second-In-Command of the unit. She knew she had to do that, she just didn't know how to do it.

Before she could ponder further on the subject her communicator activated and Cortana's voice filled her headset.

" _Okay, we got something,"_ she began. _"It seems the separate power grid was set up some time after the crash if the records are correct. My guess is that the grid was damaged and they had use a different power source in order to get it back online."_

"Why would they bother?" McKay asked.

" _Possibly a precaution, I imagine this ship might have some form of security in place to prevent anyone from just taking anything they want, namely the relic,"_ Cortana answered. _"Interesting to note though, that while the power is off in the room, security is active. I imagine the security protocols are also separate from the actual controls. They're running even without direct commands from the main console. I think the Forerunners set up the security protocols and then shut the room down to make it harder to shut them off."_

"So you're telling me that even without power it's still running a security program," McKay surmised. "And that there could still be active security measures to prevent us from getting the relic."

" _It's more than likely running in a sort of standby mode,"_ Cortana elaborated. _"Until certain parameters are met, we're okay. I imagine one of those parameters is someone stepping onto the bridge without authorization, namely us."_

That made things clear enough. If there were security measures aboard this wreck, then they were just lucky they hadn't set them off. She wondered what could trigger them to switch into high gear.

"What if us tampering with their security console signals these protocols to start making trouble for us then?" Buck asked. "Should we just leave this place alone?"

" _Pretty much anything we do might set it off,"_ Cortana reiterated. _"We need to get into the security node itself to shut it all down. I can't do that with it shut down like this."_

"Then we take the risk and hope we don't set it off," McKay decided. "Cortana, can you walk me through how to power this place up?"

" _Taq, Tali and I can do that, yes,"_ Cortana assured. _"First off you need to find a power node. I'll let Taq explain."_

Within a few seconds, the female Jackal was on the line.

" _Okay, here's the deal,"_ she began abrasively. _"Forerunner power modules are very compact, but very powerful. They can light up a small building just on their own if they had to. Right now, you're looking for a cube shaped object. Don't bother searching for wires, it doesn't work like that. It will most likely be in the floor somewhere. Look for a panel that seems altered, it should be somewhere around the main consoles."_

McKay did as told, scanning the floor with her flashlight. Buck had his own squad do the same. It took about a minute of fumbling around in the dark before Romeo shouted up at everyone.

"Hey! I think I got something!"

They all rushed over to his position, his lighting shinning on a floor panel that seemed off symmetry from the rest of the floor. McKay bent down and forced the panel open with the help of Dutch. Inside, they found what Taq had told them to look for, a strange cube locked into place within the floor.

"We got it, Taq," she reported. "Now what?"

" _Very simple, just touch and hold the top of the cube for a few seconds,"_ she directed succinctly. _"That will disengage the top. There should be a small interface inside, just activate it and you got power."_

McKay followed the Jackal's instructions, touching and holding the top of the cube. Sure enough, it opened with an otherworldly whirring sound. A small interface was revealed beneath it. McKay cautiously touched it and a chime rang. Suddenly, light was restored to the room and consoles activated. McKay jumped up and rushed over to the central control. It didn't look to be doing anything beyond just being on, so it was probably still in standby.

"Okay, we're activated but that's about it," she explained. "Ideas?"

" _McKay, this is Tali,"_ the quarian engineer spoke up. _"Halsey encountered similar security interfaces in her studies. I have a detailed read out she scribbled down in her journal with me. I can walk you through this easy. Find a symbol that looks like two circles within two other circles with a line passing through it. Push that and then activate another series of symbols in this order when they appear on the interface. Triangle with an X, Rectangle on it's side inside a circle, octagon with a line passing through it."_

McKay followed Tali's instructions to the letter. She searched the panel until she found the first symbol, activating it. A second interface soon appeared beside the symbol, revealing a sort of holographic keypad. She input the symbols that Tali had listed. Within seconds, the console seemed to light up and then a holographic representation of the Dauntless appeared in the center of the room. She could see the various status reports outlined on the display. She ignored them for now, this was Cortana's job.

"Okay we're online," she reported. "Now what?

" _You got to give Cortana a pathway in,"_ Tali explained. _"The system will refuse new outside input if it can't recognize the source code. Halsey tried it once with a few AI of her own and it took weeks of bludgeoning the data just to get in. We need to make this easier. There should be an interface close to you, a sliding series of holographic readouts. Bring them all down, then press and hold two symbols nearby, an oval with two lines on either end and an arrow pointing down inside a triangle. That should lower their equivalent of a firewall and allow Cortana access."_

McKay did as asked, locating the interface easily. She pulled the gauges down with her finger tips and then pressed down hard on the two symbols Tali had mentioned nearby. There was another low chime and the console glowed bright blue. As McKay was about to report her success, Cortana suddenly appeared on the console itself.

"You're a natural hacker, Lieutenant," the AI told her. "Now, let's see what we got here."

Cortana was already quick at work, accessing files and the larger security network. McKay just kept quiet and watched he AI do her thing. She couldn't help but notice the AI's face seemed to be rather annoyed after a while though and that's when she felt the need to ask a question.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

"I'm being careful here," the AI answered in a disgruntled manner. "But whoever was in charge of security left a lot of checks and balances in place. It's hard to circumnavigate this network's systems. It does seem like they have an active protocol running in low threat mode."

"So we're not in trouble yet?" Dutch asked curiously.

"Keyword: Yet," Cortana expressed. "It seems every second we're in here we're getting closer to upgrading our status."

"So? Just shut it down," Zaeed stated plainly. "Turn it all off and let's be on our way."

"Wish I could, but I can't find the deactivation codes here and-"

Cortana stopped speaking for a moment, her gaze steeling, before she let out an angry growl.

"Damn it, they transfered all security authorization to the damn bridge," she angrily informed them. "It was the last action before they shut this room down. All this place does is run the protocols. I'd need access to the bridge to shut it all down."

"What can we do from here then?" McKay asked. "Can we at least discern their protocols? Are we dealing with Sentinels or what?"

"I don't see any reference to Sentinels in the code," Cortana replied exasperated. "There are whole sections redacted from the code and I can't get into them. It's ridiculous what they went through to keep everything classified when they knew they were all gonna die anyway."

"They really didn't want us knowing their secrets, huh?" Buck asked.

"Obviously," Cortana grumbled as she tried searching through the files. "There must be something in here, some kind of information we can use."

After a few more seconds of searching, Cortana stopped. Her anger dissipated into curiosity once more, as something on the status screen began to flash.

"That's odd," she exclaimed. "According to this, there was an activation sequence as the ship crashed. It started but it wasn't fully completed. They were trying to separate the bridge from the rest of the ship. As if they wanted it to be harder to reach when they crashed."

"Why would anyone want to damage their own ship like that?" Buck asked confused. "Wouldn't you want it intact so you can try to fix it?"

"Sounds like they didn't intend to," McKay reasoned. "And that this procedure was part of the ship's design."

"I good assessment," Cortana concurred. "They want the bridge to be harder to reach, they transfer the security authorization to the bridge and from the looks of it a lot of the security protocols refer to the bridge section specifically. I think Taq was right, I think the Relic is there. They were trying to protect their most precious bit of cargo!"

This was a breakthrough, they knew where to go now. Or at least they had a very good idea of where they needed to be. Their objective was aboard the bridge somewhere, they just needed to get to it. McKay was more than thrilled at this, they could wrap this mission up easy now and get the hell out of here. So long as they didn't trip any of security protocols of course.

"I'm going to download a list of security parameters for the bridge I can see on the system," Cortana explained. "I should be able to use them to get us into the bridge with little difficulty. Now if I can just locate a pathway to the bridge's systems I can-"

Suddenly the room went red and terrible alarm sounded. The ODSTs inside grabbed their ears in pain. Jack brought out her shotgun and activated the warp ammo function, as Thane moved to her side.

"Well, shit in the fan time!" She shouted aloud, her tone almost excited.

"Cortana! What's going on?" McKay demanded.

"A hidden search function!" She cried out. "Underneath the lines of code, crap! The second it saw I was looking into the Bridge it heightened security! The network knows we know where the Relic is! It's trying to stop us from reaching it! High level security protocols have been engaged!"

"Well what does that mean?!" Buck shouted.

Something suddenly burst from the ceiling and landed in the center of the room, disrupting the holographic image of the ship. McKay pointed her rifle at it, only to see it was a small, four legged metallic creature, like a dog of some kind. It had an arched back and three pronged toes. It's face was strange forked shape, two large pointed prongs sticking out with a third smaller one in the middle. It then opened up to reveal an orange light in the middle of it's head. It screamed loudly and then shot some kind of energy pulse at McKay. She jumped back as the blast hit the console and then fired on the strange metallic creature. Three direct hits struck the robot and it crumpled to the ground.

Whatever sigh of relief McKay might have felt was shattered when more metallic screams were heard and more of the weird four legged robots popped out of the ceiling through vents and open panels. They opened fire on the ODSTs who returned it in kind. Some of the Troopers were hit, their amor singed slightly, their feet struck with blazing hot energy pulses. The machines themselves couldn't take a lot of hits, but there were a lot of them and more were coming.

"Pull back!" McKay ordered "Everyone out of this room! Defensive formation! Keep it tight!"

The machines continued to fire as the ODSTs moved out of the room. Jack for her part threw her biotic powers about, sending the machines flying in the walls. Zaeed opened up with a torrent of fire from his assault rifle, the disruptor rounds easily forcing the ravenous robots back. Thane also returned fire, backing up Jack as she retreated with the others, his sniper rifle easily tearing through the various swarming synthetic creatures.

"And here I was starting to think this would be a boring mission after all," Jack chuckled, firing her shotgun point blank into one of the machines. It had been racing along the wall, crawling towards and charging it's weapon, before one simple blast from the Ex-Con's weapon tore it apart.

McKay tried to report her situation to the other teams, but when she tried, her radio was suddenly filled with voices expressing fairly familiar scenarios to the one she was now facing. Machines pouring out of the woodwork, attacking any squads they saw. Said squads were being forced to pullback, Jackals providing cover with their shields, Batarians laying down heavy fire as they pushed out of the cargo compartments. These things were everywhere. They had been lying in wait, anticipating the go ahead from the computer to attack. Now they were swarming all threats aboard the vessel.

"I gotta get back to Chief and the others," Cortana explained as they fled the room. "Get to cover, Lieutenant! Keep your head down!"

Cortana's form vanished from the console, just as one of the machines scrambled up it and smashed the terminal with one of it's claws. McKay lit the synthetic up with a burst of rounds from her rifle, tearing it apart with ease.

"Troopers!" She shouted at her people. "Fall back to defensive positions! Move it people! Kill anything that scurries around on four legs, but do not stop! We are not getting overrun!"

As they fled the security room, the machines followed, still firing at them like mad. McKay kept firing at them, spewing out bullets on the little bastards, but they just kept coming. The only good news was it looked like they had no interest in burrowing into their chests and parading the corpses around like puppets. That was a small comfort though, at least the infection forms couldn't shoot back on their own accord. They needed to find some ground to hold and fast, lest they be completely overtaken by the swarming robots. Problem was, where did you go to make a stand when you literally inside the enemy's house and they could come from anywhere?

The only strategy she could think of was to find the other squads. They had to pool their resources, match the swarm's numbers. For now though, all they could do was run and hope they didn't run out of ammo before the little freaks caught up to them.

* * *

This had not been how Kowalski expected things to go wrong. At worst he thought there was a monster in the catacombs surrounding this wreck or maybe there were booby traps like Taq claimed. Instead, killer robot dogs with laser guns for faces. Sure, why not? It made as much sense as anything else. At the moment he wasn't sure what was worse though. The fact a bunch of killer machines were trying to murder him or Ellingham's ceaseless shouting of "I told you so" every couple of seconds. Granted, it was basically a panicked cry more than anything, but it was still annoying.

One of the four-legged synths jumped over a line of Jackals trying to defend their retreat. It made a beeline right for Kowalski, powering up it's weapon as it darted for the Marine. The Private slammed his finger down on the trigger and ripped the freakish machine apart with a torrent of bullets. As bits and pieces of the demolished robot crumpled to the floor, Kowalski heard something smash against the wall. He looked to see Samara, using her biotics to rip through the swarm of the crawling robots while Ellingham and Pearson backed her up.

"We will be overrun within the confines of this vessel," she warned. "We must exit the ship and enter the caverns!"

"How is that any better?" Ellingham asked, as he reloaded his rifle.

"Hey, at least we'll have more places to hide and we won't be inside their damn house!" Kowalski argued. "I think it's our only chance!"

Kowalski remembered the scans from the briefing. They were a lot more open than the inside of this ship. He imagined some of the other teams either had the same idea or were trying to get back to the staging area outside if possible. If they did head for the caves though, maybe they could link up with the other teams and organize some sort of stand.

"Yeah, staying in here is suicide either way," Pearson declared, agreeing with Samara as well. "Where's our nearest exit?"

Samara activated her omni-tool, but did not abandon the battle. As she searched the scans of the wreck, she pulled out her pistol and began firing at the encroaching machines. Her first three shots ripped through the robots with ease, blowing their heads clean off.

"We should be able to leave through a breach in the hull down that hallways and to the left," she claimed. "We must cut a path through the enemy to reach it."

"Okay then, let's find Johnson and see if he wants to-"

Pearson didn't finish it, as a grenade went off ahead of them. The Jackals jumped back slightly at the explosion, but it was not meant for them. Most of the crawling robots now lay in smoking heaps as Sergeant Johnson moved up to fire a few more shots into the leftovers.

"Damn metal bastards," he growled, turning back to Samara and the team. "We gotta move before they reinforce, people. Any ideas?"

"We believe a quick exit into the caves is in order, Sergeant," Samara expressed. "I have located a potential exit we can use, but we must move now."

"Not a fan of staying in here anyhow," Johnson declared. "Alright, let's move then. Ramirez, on point! Agley, Kowalski, let's tell the bird-brains the plan and get them on board. We're leaving together!"

Ramirez moved up on point, Samara backing him up. Kowalski followed Johnson with Agley in tow as they headed towards the Jackal's position within their defensive perimeter. They were faring decently, but the machines were not bound to the floor. A few of them were crawling up the walls and trying to bypass the wall of shields the pirates had set up. At least one of the poor birds had gotten hit and was getting dragged to safety by one of his mates.

They found Zek in the thick of it, using his Needler Rifle to take out the ones crawling along the walls and ceiling. Small pink bursts exploded into existence as the little robots were blown to bits. Even with Zek's expert marksmanship though, there were still more of the machines scrambling their way. One nearly took Zek's head off with an energy blast. The pirate managed to duck just in time and returned fire with at least two more needle shots than needed to kill the little machine.

"Fucking stupid synths," he growled as the robot exploded.

He then noticed Johnson moving up from behind with Kowalski and Agley. He took a moment to acknowledge them before he reloaded his weapon and continued sniping the incoming hostiles. That didn't stop him from carrying a conversation though.

"I trust you got a plan, Sergeant," Zek stated as he kept firing on the robots. "I really do not want to die in here to be honest."

"That's why we're not staying," Johnson told him. "We got a way out, into the caverns, but we need you to cover our flank on the way."

"Well, beats this shithole," Zek agreed. "Get your people moving, we'll fall back as you go forward."

Zek was quick to rally his men, ordering them to fall back on the defensive perimeter as the robots kept scrambling towards them. They kept their shields high, blocking the incoming shots and returning fire as they traveled down the corridor after the Marines.

As this was going on, Kowalski followed Johnson to catch up with the rest of his squad. Ramirez was still on point, blasting away with his assault rifle along the walls and floor. Samara was sending out periodic shockwaves to keep the waves of machines back. They kept pushing towards their intended exit all the while, never once stopping. Johnson ran out of bullets in his rifle along the way. Instead of reloading, he instead start whacking at the machines with the butt of his gun. Kowalski could even see something similar with the Jackal's further back. One used his shield to smash a robot against a wall before shooting a blazing torrent of purple needles.

That was when they reached where they were supposed to turn, but they found no turn. They just found a wall. Samara looked at it confused and checked her omni-tool again to see if she had been mistaken. But the scan didn't show any obstruction.

"What is going on?" Ramirez asked. "Where's the hallway?"

"I do not know," a bereaved Samara answered. "It should be here."

She quickly searched the scan again, desperately seeking another exit. She believed she located one, an airlock further down their corridor along with a second path that led to the previous hull breach from there. It was better than nothing and it just required a short walk or so. With a new plan, they quickly moved down the corridor, the sounds of the machines still chasing them.

They did reach the airlock soon enough, finding it was blown open, probably from the crash. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, only two people at a time could seemingly get through and there were a lot of people that needed to escape. Johnson wasted no time in directing everyone towards it. The machines were still closing in, they could hear the Jackals still trying to fight them back.

"Come on, come on," he ordered. "Push through!"

The Marines began to plow through the open airlock, rushing through to the caverns on the other side. As they continued to run through, the Jackals themselves began to enter the room and set up a perimeter around the entrance. Zek was with them, firing his plasma pistol as he retreated into the room.

"I'm over this fucking ghost ship," he growled. "When the fuck are we leaving?"

"We're moving out steadily, this thing is cramped," Johnson explained. "We can start funneling you guys through as soon as-"

"I can't fit!"

Johnson looked to see Ellingham trying to push through the airlock. Kowalski did the same and he could swear the hole seemed smaller than before. It was as if the metal around the airlock had converged together.

"The hell is going on here?" Pearson shouted. "First our hallway disappears, now the hole is smaller?"

"It doesn't matter, we need to move," Johnson ordered. "Head down the secondary corridor, the one that leads to that breach, we can still get out."

As Johnson spoke, the vents at the back of the room broke open. Spilling out of them came more of the four-legged robots, swarming towards them. Zek looked at this and quickly moved a few of his people to block their path.

"They're surrounding us," Zek screeched. "Come on! Run people!"

Zek was first to rush down the corridor towards the hull breach. A few of his men rushed after him, trying to stick with their leader. Samara ran after them in kind, charging after the swarm of fleeing birds. Kowalski followed best he could, but the cramped corridor made a long sprint impossible.

They did reach the atrium and saw the huge in the side of the ship. Kowalski had almost expected it to be closed up, like the airlock, it would've been just their luck if it had been. Zek was standing by the breach, waving his fellow pirates through, slapping some on the back as the past, pushing them forward.

"Run, run, we are not going to get killed by fucking synths!" He screamed at them. "We're gonna regroup in the caverns, come back, kick them out and get our goods later. But first we gotta survive!"

Suddenly several energy blasts came from their right in an open doorway. Zek jumped forward and activated his energy shield to block the shots aimed at his men. He tossed a plasma grenade over at them as he tried to push forward, letting the explosion rip the little bots apart. As he stood near the doorway he laughed and kicked one of the busted heads of the bots away.

"HA! Fuck you, metal pricks!" He declared. "Whose the fucking bird? I'm the fucking bird! This wreck is as good as mine, you hear, fuckers?! Good! As! M-"

Without warning the floor beneath Zek suddenly opened up. He plummeted into the opening, his voice echoing as he fell. A few of his fellow Jackals rushed over to the hole and looked down it.

"Boss!" One cried. "Boss! You okay boss?"

There was no answer and they wouldn't have much time to receive one. The hole closed up as quickly as it had opened. Kowalski had no idea what was going on, only that suddenly the missing hallway and closed up airlock made a lot more sense. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw what looked to be wall growing over the breach.

"The ship can shift it's insides!" He fearfully shouted. "It can frickin change around!"

"Not if I can help it," Samara assured him, pulling the missile launcher off her back. "Everyone get back!"

Some of the Jackals scattered away from the closing breach as Samara fired her launcher. Three blasts smashed into the healing wall, reopening the breach once more. The Jackals wasted no time in rushing through it, along with a number of the Marines as they charged through alongside them. It looked like their troubles were over, for about five seconds. That was when the corridor they were using as an escape route to this room started closing as well. The doorway began to shrink, as if vanishing into nothing. It was going to cut off what was left of the unit still trapped inside the ship.

Samara rushed over to the entrance and, using all her biotic power, forced the door to remain open. Her hands braced against the closing wall, fingertips clawing at the edges as she forced the doorway to keep open. Kowalski tried to help her, pulling Marines through the rapidly closing exit. They all scrambled to the breach, fearful of it soon closing again as well.

Samara struggled to keep the wall from closing in as the last few Marines pushed through. The last one was Agley, but he tripped moments before he got through the door. Samara reached out to him with her powers, pulling him the rest of the way somewhat violently. Agley was forced through, falling to the floor near the breach with a thud. As he scrambled to his feet, Samara attempted to follow. As she did so though, the Asari's footing gave way as the floor opened up beneath her.

"Sam!"

Kowalski rushed over to grab the asari by the arm as she began to slip into the dark. He strained, trying to pull her up with him. Then, the floor beneath him vanished as well and they both fell into the dark. Kowalski thought he heard Ellingham screaming his name as he plummeted. He thought he could see Samara's fearful expression as they fell, the first time he had ever seen her looking even the slightest bit scared. Then he hit his head on the side of the wall and he couldn't hear or see anything anymore.

* * *

This wreck had suddenly become far more infuriating than Varvok imagined. He had quickly realized that these machines had the advantage in this closed space. They needed to get out into the catacombs beyond, it was their only chance. But every turn, every hallway, every potential escape route was gone before they could reach it. When he saw one hallway close up just as they reached it, he knew why. The damn wreck was able to shift it's innards. It was cutting off their attempts to escape. The damn cheating dead ship couldn't even fight fair.

Varvok fired his shotgun at machines as they charged up a new corridor. The little freaks were everywhere, blasting at their heels with their energy blasts. As he ran, he noticed the corridor itself seemed to be moving, bending with them. Now the cursed ship wasn't even waiting any longer to dash their hopes, it was deliberately toying with them. He wondered, was an AI behind this or was this just some complicated program making decisions on it's own? He had no idea, all he knew was his men needed to get out of here.

He saw a few vents up ahead in the new room the ship had led them to. Expecting the strategy the security system had in store for him, Varvok quickly moved into action. He would not let this wreck make a fool of him and his men any longer.

"Grenadiers, aim for the vents!" He ordered. "Blow them up! Kill them before they come swarming out!"

His batarians did as ordered, launching grenades at the vents. Sure enough, the machines tried to pour out of them and were met with a face full of fire and shrapnel. Varvok had his men keep firing at the vents with every bullet they had, forming a sort of defensive perimeter. He looked to his omni-tool once more, hoping that they had another chance.

This ship was capable of shifting it's internal layout, but it more than likely couldn't form parts from nothing. It needed to borrow or take away mass from somewhere. There had to be a way out they could reach in time before it could figure out what they were doing. He imagined other people were trying to escape too. So the security program or AI would probably be taxed a bit, giving them a moment or two to make a run for their escape.

That's when his eyes spotted it, the ship had overlooked something when it led them into this room. Stupid machine, it hadn't seen that one of the vents was broken, that it led outside into the cave system. They just had to slide along it and they'd be free! He had to move them now though, who knew how long it would take the computer to figure out what was happening.

He looked to the vent in question and forced the grate off it with his bare hands. He threw a grenade into it first, just in case there was an ambush waiting for them. After the explosion erupted, he turned to his men.

"This is our way out," he told them. "Quickly, move! I will cover you!"

He had no intention of being the first one through, he'd stand and face these robots by himself if he had to. The squad's safety came first. The batarians rushed through the vent, sliding down the whole way to the caves below. Varvok remained all the while, firing his shotgun at the now swarming machines, blowing one after the other away with frantic precision. He would not let one follow his men. They would not get past him. They would not be beaten by a stupid wreck that did not realize it was dead.

As the last batarian jumped through the vent, Varvok waited a few moments more. He fired his omni-blades at a group of the machines. They embedded themselves into one of the synths and then exploded, killing three more. Satisfied, Varvok jumped into the vent and began to slide down it to where his men were awaiting him. He had done it, he had beaten the wreck, he had beaten the great Forerunner's security system! He had beaten the damn machines!

But, as he slid down the vent, something suddenly felt off. The vent was curving in a way it shouldn't. The scan said it was a straight shot. There were no curves. Then, to his horror, he saw a sudden drop ahead of him. He tried to stop himself, slow himself down by gripping the sides of the vent, but it was too late. He fell into the hole and cursed the damn wreck as he did.

* * *

This had all gone to hell faster than Shepard was prepared for. These machines were coming out of the woodwork, swarming all over the place. That was bad enough, then the halls seemed to keep shifting on them as they moved. What was on the scan they had of the layout was different from what they kept running into. Worse yet, the new paths seemed to keep leading them into ambushes.

As they turned another corner, they were quickly beset upon by another group of the four-legged machines. They jumped up from panels in the floor, scrambling towards the walls where they began firing charged shots at them repeatedly.

In response, Tali fired an energy drain with her omni-tool, shorting out the machine before it plopped to the ground dead. She then unleashed her combat drone, to keep the others at bay. Legion sent it's drone in as well, detonating it's self-destruct function once it was among the hostile robots. Shepard sent out shockwaves to push the robots back, firing at them as they popped up into the air.

The Spartans were busy with their own task, fighting their way through the pack of robots towards a nearby terminal on the wall. Taq kep close to them, using her energy axe to knock back any of the robots that got close to her. As one rushed her from the side, she turned and slashed the blade into the robot's head, cleaving it in two. Meanwhile, Linda and Kat covered the Chief as he retrieved Cortana from the computer and snapped her chip back into his head. Chief then turned and fired his pistol upwards at two of the robots crawling along the ceiling. His shots easily blasted them apart before they could fire their energy blasts.

That was about the last of the machines within the room, for the moment. Chances were more were on the way. Right now though, they some time to think before the next skirmish erupted.

"Any idea what these things are Cortana?" Chief asked as he reloaded.

"No idea, everything about them was either erased from the computer, redacted or sent to the bridge probably," the AI explained. "If I could get into their systems there I could probably figure it out, but they locked it down after the transfer of the security codes. And I'm almost positive that all these twists and turns the wreck is pulling on us are deliberately designed to keep us from getting closer to where the bridge used to be before they disconnected it. They really don't want us going there."

"Fuck them," Taq growled. "That's where the relic is, that's where I'm going! No stupid security program is keeping me from my payday! We just gotta out do this stupid shifting protocol."

"How is it doing that anyway?" Shepard asked as he walked over to them. "How can it just shift it's insides?"

"From what I saw in the computer, Forerunner ships are apparently capable of altering their structure, both external and internal," Cortana explained. "The ship restructures its mass based on need. Right now, that need is keeping anyone from getting to the bridge."

As incredible as that sounded, Shepard could not appreciate the impressive technology that a ship would require to pull that sort of thing off. It meant that getting to the bridge was even more difficult now because the ship was actively fighting against them. That had happened a few times to them before, but this was on another. It did bring to mind a question though.

"Is an AI doing this?" Shepard asked. "One like Guilty Spark?"

"I don't think so," Cortana answered plainly. "If it was an AI it would've responded to our presence way faster than it did. This is pre-programmed into the system, protocols the computer is designed to execute under certain circumstances. If we get too close to the bridge it alters our path or directs these crawling bots take us out."

"So how do we beat it?" Linda asked grimly.

"We overtax the system," Cortana informed her. "We overload it's processors with a bunch of junk data, slow it's response time."

"Of course," Tali said snapping her fingers in jubilation. "We make it think it has more intruders to respond to than it actually does. Then it can't shift corridors around nearly as fast!"

"Even as a wreck this place is still Forerunner though," Cortana quickly explained. "I'll need some help overloading these systems."

Legion and Tali nodded in succession, both bringing up their omni-tools.

"I'm having DOT run a junk data execution protocol I've designed," Tali confidently stated. "That should help."

"This platform has several hacking streams suited for this task," Legion assured. "We require direct access to the system for total saturation."

"We need to find the right terminal then," Cortana told them. "There should be one with a direct line to the ship's data stream just in the next room. Let's get there fast before the ship decides to do another switcheroo."

They rushed towards the nearest exit, but Chief stopped them just as they reached the doorway. Shepard could tell why when he started looking into the room beforehand. It had been too long since they had gotten attack by the robots. Chances were there were more close by, waiting.

"Can you send in your drone?" Chief whispered to Tali.

The quarian just nodded and activated Chiktikka. The little purple energy ball rolled into the room and was quickly beset on all sides by the robots. They began shooting bursts at the drone, Chiktikka returned them in kind, sending an electrical pulse right into the face of one of the robots, causing it to explode. Linda motioned her Battle Rifle into the room, aimed down the sights and began picking off some of the bots from afar.

The team moved into the room, fanning out to create a perimeter as they pushed back their would-be , Tali and Chief moved to the console along the far wall. Shepard moved to cover their exit near a large pod of some kind, aiming his shotgun at the nearest vent. Chief had already plugged the AI into the console by the time he was set up.

"How long will it take you to jam up the system?" Shepard asked hurriedly.

"Depends on how fast we can generate junk data," Cortana speedily answered. "I'm launching the stream now."

"DOT has mine running too," Tali added. "She's boosted processing time by seventy percent."

Legion plugged itself directly into the console and was already well underway. It's head plates were spread backwards on it's head, it's eye wide open.

"We are generating excess data functions at maximum efficiency," the geth reported. "Total saturation in thirty seconds."

As Legion said that, Shepard heard something scampering towards the doorway. He repositioned his shotgun, turned on inferno rounds and aimed down he sight. The second one of the robots showed it's face, he fired a blast right into it, blowing it's head clean off. He followed up with a second blast, killing two of the bots as they tried to dart around the corner. Already he could tell they were moving into the room a lot slower than before. Cortana's strategy was working.

"Ten more seconds," Cortana shouted aloud. "We got this in the bag."

Shepard was glad to hear that and was about to congratulate the team on the success. Then he felt himself suddenly start to drop. He then felt the pod he was laying against begin to move away from him. Then he felt nothing beneath him at all. The floor beneath him had opened right up. As he began to fall down he tried to grab the onto the ledge, but his fingers slipped. Tali saw him start and dove to grab him. Shepard reached towards her hand... but missed.

"Wade! No!"

Shepard fell into the dark and watched Tali's panicked face fade from his vision.

* * *

He woke up in a heap, his head pounding. Clearly he had hit something hard. He was alive though, the pain was proof enough of that. He slowly rose to his feet, holding his head in hand. Shepard just thanked the N7 program for making the Alliance got the best helmets out there. He looked up to see what was probably the underside of the ship, quite a ways up from him in fact. One hell of a drop, but some of the rocky ledges and slopes had probably helped to cushion his fall.

Again, he thought, at least I'm alive. He tried to contact the team to let them know, but all he got was static. Great, the fall must've damaged his comms. He'd need to fix them. For now though, his armor's transponder should let them know his vital signs were still intact. If they checked on that they'd know he was okay. If nothing else, Chief would convince them all to continue the mission. They needed to find that relic and it was aboard the bridge. He'd try and see about making headway to it himself. He could rendezvous with them there.

As he began to walk though, he thought he heard footsteps. It could be other members of the expedition. Or it could be more of those crawlers. Unsure of which, he pulled out his pistol and took careful aim. He also charged up his biotics, getting ready to send out a shockwave should anything come at him. He slowly looked to the nearby corner, his flashlight aimed at the bend. Something then suddenly jumped out and Shepard aimed at it right in the face.

It was not a crawler though, it was someone else.

"Shepard?"

"Varvok?"

The batarian had his weapon raised as well, but he soon lowered along with the Commander's. The two eyed each other grimly for a moment, only their helmet attached flashlights illuminating the cavern. There was a tense moment of silence before either of them spoke.

"Ship separated you from your squad too, huh?" Shepard finally asked.

"Obviously," Varvok grumbled in response. "It also seems to have a sick sense of humor."

"Don't give it too much credit," Shepard told him bluntly. "It's still just an old wreck."

The sound of metallic screeching was heard echoing on the walls, prompting both of them to raise their weapons once more and point them into the dark. They saw nothing, but they could hear it. The screeches seemed to be everywhere and one could not tell if it was due to the echo of the caverns or if they were surrounded.

"Well, for a wreck it seems it still has some fight left in it," Varvok stated.

"Sure sounds like it does," Shepard concurred. "Ideas?"

"Stay out of sight and find my men," Varvok stated. "They're down here somewhere."

"Alright," Shepard replied nodding. "Let's get moving then."

They slowly moved into the dark, placing themselves on each other's flanks as they did. Usually, Shepard would appreciate the company in this situation. But deep down, at this moment, with Varvok by his side, he wished he was alone. He suspected his batarian companion felt the same.

* * *

AN: Well this might turn into a fairly interesting development. And Shepard and Varvok aren't the only ones stuck with one another. Come back next time to see who has to tolerate who as we go deeper into the caverns to discover the mystery hidden within the wreck of the Dauntless. Please do leave a review if you can. And check out the profile, I actually bothered to update it with links this time for the notes.


	12. Relic of Power

Chapter 11: The Relic of Power

 _You call this Archaeology?_

 _-Dr. Henry Jones_

He was alive, he was okay and he was alive. That was what Tali kept telling herself to keep her head in the game. Shepard's transponder was still transmitting his vital signs, he was okay. Right now, the best way to help him was to get to the Dauntless' disconnected Bridge, shut down the security and stop these four-legged mechanical monsters in their tracks.

Easier said than done though. Cortana's plan had worked, the shifting corridors had slowed to a crawl. The computer was unable to respond quickly to every potential intruder threat, most of which didn't actually exist. They were closing in on where the bridge had once been before it separated from the ship.

With Chief, Linda and Kat up front, they easily pushed through the robots in their path. There were close calls, one of the little creeps jumped down on Kat from above. She had to grab it off her shoulder quickly, just barely avoiding a point-blank energy burst to the skull. With a bit more rage than usual, Kat threw the crawling menace to the ground and smashed it with her robotic arm.

Not long after that, they pushed their way towards their main objective, where the _Dauntless_ ' Bridge had once been. They instead found one giant hole in the hull leading out into the caverns. While there was clear damage to the hull overall, in some places it looked just fine. It was as if the Bridge had just peacefully let go of the rest of the ship in those areas instead of being violently ripped apart. This added credence to the theory that the ship had tried to disengage the Bridge before the crash.

Besides the big hole, beneath them was a great big open chasm. It stretched several hundred or so feet down to the floor of the catacombs themselves. About eighty yards away and a few more feet up, they could see the the bridge on a ledge of sorts within the cave system. Their target was in sight, now the problem was getting to it.

"I was really hoping we'd just have to walk," Taq grimaced. "Okay then, Plan B."

"Plan B?" Linda asked, not sounding all that enthused.

"We waste time climbing down, we leave ourselves open to those things attacking us," Taq reiterated as she put down her pack. "Not to mention the longer that security program is running, the longer everyone in and around this ship are in danger. We need to speed the process up."

She brought out two grappling line guns, at least that was what Tali assumed they were. What other kind of gun looked like it could shoot hooks? They were a lot heavier looking than what you'd probably see in the vids, almost the size of a larger submachine gun or small rifle. She handed them to the nearest Spartans, Linda and Kat.

"High tensile fiber wires," she said stoically. "Strong enough to hold our weight with a firing mechanism powerful enough to bridge that gap. We shoot the grapple, we tie them off, we hook ourselves in and scurry across as fast as we can go."

"We're a bit heavier than your average Jackal," Kat noted.

"I've used them to lug up whole loads of heavy equipment," Taq insisted. "You'll be fine. Would you rather we climb down and stumble through the dark instead?"

"I'm just making sure this is viable," Kat insisted. "I don't want them breaking on us halfway."

Linda took aim first, steadying the grappling claw in her hands. When she felt she had a good target, she pulled the trigger and let it fly. The claw hurtled through the air and embedded itself into the rocks along the far ledge. The other end of the gun opened up to reveal an anchor line, which Linda launched into the floor of the ship, embedding itself tightly into the steel. Kat tried to aim her gun, but she soon shook her head in frustration.

"I'm not the marksman Jun is," Kat stated. "I don't think we can wait for him to get all the way down here from the surface."

"This platform is proficient in long range targeting," Legion stated. "Success is statistically more likely in our case."

Kat didn't argue and simply handed the grappling gun to the Geth. The synthetic took the weapon and aimed across the gap. After focusing its sight and range, it fired the cable at the detached Bridge. The hook embedded itself hard into the metal hull. After the anchor hook shot out and stuck itself in the floor, Legion looked to Kat for her approval. The Spartan only nodded as she moved into position beside the now suspended grappling gun.

"The gun doubles as a winching system," Taq informed them. "We can use them to zip us across in record time. No need for crawling up the cable for an hour."

Good, Tali really hadn't been looking forward to shimmying along a wire for any length of time. Linda and Kat began hooking themselves up to the winch first. Once they were ready, Tali and Taq would hook their own tether lines, provided by the Jackal herself, to the Spartans. That way, they could get most of their group across in one go.

"Once we get to the other side we'll send the winch back for you, sir," Linda told Chief as she made the final adjustments.

Chief didn't seem to be paying attention at the moment though, his mind focused on his own omni-tool. Tali could see it was showing the scans of the ship taken earlier. From that alone, she knew what he was planning before he even said it.

"Actually, I'm staying behind," he informed Linda. "There's an open cavity in the hull nearby that leads straight into the cave system. I'll be heading through there."

"You're going after Shepard, aren't you?" Kat asked.

"The ship's computer could've isolated any of us like it did him," Chief explained. "It didn't. Why?"

"You make it sound like he was deliberately targeted," Taq observed inquisitively.

"He most likely was," Cortana stated, appearing on the Chief's omni-tool screen. "He televised his leadership role to the computer. And, like a less deadly version of a sniper, this singled him out. Security couldn't kill him, but it could remove him. Probably in the hopes we'd be unable to properly function without him."

Taq scratched the underside of her beak, taking in the possibility of what Cortana was saying.

"It's an interesting theory," she eventually admitted. "But what's that got to do with anything right now?"

"Chances are the computer might be directing hostiles to Shepard's position," Chief explained. "Until the security system is shutdown the Commander is in danger. Right now he's alone, he could use the backup."

"We concur with your assessment," Legion stated. "If you will permit us, we would join you in the search for Shepard-Commander."

Tali's nerves now suddenly returned. It was bad enough that the Master Chief was suggesting Wade had been purposely targeted so he could be overwhelmed by the enemy later. Now Legion wanted to go after him. Not that Tali wasn't grateful, but there were still concerns.

"Legion, wait, your glitch, remember?" She reminded him. "I know it hasn't cropped up for a while now, but that's only because we've been doing systems checks. If something goes wrong..."

"I'll be there to help them," Chief assured her. "I have a copy of the program on my omni-tool. Cortana downloaded it there herself. If I see any signs of a problem I can react quickly."

That certainly made things a little easier to accept. Tali probably would've volunteered to rescue Shepard herself, but she needed to get to the bridge. Halsey's notes and her hacking expertise were going to be invaluable once they got there. She was still worried about sending Legion off alone, but they wouldn't really be alone. If the Chief was with them, perhaps everything would be okay.

However, there was another issue with Chief splitting from the group.

"What about Cortana?" Taq asked. "Aren't we going to need her on the bridge with us?"

"You will," Chief said reaching for the back of his helmet. "That's why I'm sending her with you."

He yanked Cortana's chip from his neural uplink. The AI's image vanished from his omni-tool as he pulled her out. He then walked over to Tali, who just nodded and held out her own omni-tool. Cortana's program was instantly transferred to the quarian's device and popped up on her screen after a few seconds.

"Little more cramped than usual, but manageable," Cortana stated. "Plus the company is a nice change really. Hi, DOT, what's happening?"

"Currently managing Tali'Zorah's shield output and biometric lifesigns," DOT replied. "They are all nominal. Progress on data compiling of Forerunner information storage disc at fifty-eight percent."

Taq had asked Tali to look at some of the data they discovered in the Chief Engineer's room earlier. It had been going slower than expected, but it was still nice to hear progress was being made.

"See if you can help her out with that data encryption while you're in there," Tali asked Cortana. "We have a bit of time before we locate where those authorization codes were sent to."

"Will do," Cortana saluted, before disappearing into the omni-tool.

Tali closed the device and looked up to the Master Chief.

"Thank you for going after Shepard," she told him earnestly. "Bring him back in one piece, okay? I... the _Normandy_ needs him."

Chief just gave a knowing nod and looked to Legion.

"Ready to move out?" He asked.

"Affirmative," Legion answered.

"We'll link back up on the Bridge once we find Shepard," Chief told the others. "See you there."

"Good luck," Linda offered.

The Geth and the Spartan Leader left the room, heading for their way down to the caverns. The remaining members of the team now all hooked in, preparing for the trip across the chasm.

"Well isn't this nice," Taq said as she nestled her back against Linda's chest. "It's an all female excavation now. Things are looking up again."

"Let's just get over there, find the relic and shut these crawlers down," Tali insisted, attaching herself to Kat who now held her firmly against her body. "Every second we waste is one where people are in danger."

"Hold tight," Linda said to Taq, clutching her firmly "Activating the winch."

The winches started up and the four of them raced across the chasm at a fairly moderate speed. The cables only bent a little with the increased weight of the Spartans on the line. They didn't snap though, so that was just fine as far as Tali was concerned. She tried not to look down the whole way. Not an easy task of course, eventually she just shut her eyes in an attempt to block out all sight in general. Unfortunately, that just seemed to make the fact her feet were dangling in mid-air all the more apparent. It was the most terrifying situation she could think of at the moment. Next to maybe a room full of spiders, that was probably way worse.

After about two minutes or so of feeling like she was about to be reclaimed by gravity any second, Tali opened her eyes to see the end of the chasm. The ledge approached quickly, the dark void beneath replaced by solid rock. Kat unlatched them from the line and they both touched ground once more. Tali was a little shaky at first, but she managed to maintain her balance and not face plant into the rock. She looked to see Taq and Linda had also made it across, although the Jackal was already striding towards their intended target.

Before them now was the detached section of the Dauntless. Tali imagined it housed a lot more than just the bridge given it's size. Probably another problem caused by the sudden crash. So much had seemingly gone wrong for these Forerunners so quickly. Yet they had still managed to set up an effective countermeasure to keep their cargo safe. It was hard not to be impressed, but currently that makeshift security system and the robots it controlled had placed people's lives in danger. Not just Shepard, but the other members of the _Normandy_ crew no doubt now trapped down here. They needed to shut this place down, fast.

Taq seemed to echo her sentiments, but with a greater sense of awe. She stood at the foot of the entrance to their goal, a pair of heavy doors, tightly locked. Taq looked at them defiantly before gazing back at the others.

"This is it ladies," she began resonating with pride. "The whole reason we're here. This hunk of metal and the many secrets it hides within. Somewhere on that Bridge is our Relic. Is it a weapon? A repository of knowledge? A power source? I don't know, but the Forerunners aboard this wreck all died making sure no one could get it. That tells me it's important, more so than we originally imagined. I don't know about you, but I'm dying to figure out what all the fuss is about."

She pulled out her energy axe and ignited it, a blue glow resonating against her face in the dark.

"So let's crack this tin can open, shall we?"

* * *

The darkened catacombs were one thing, but the echoes of the robots were another matter altogether. Shepard couldn't imagine why they seemed so loud, why they kept screeching. Were they sending signals to each other? Or was it some kind of psychological warfare runtime? Scare your targets by letting them know you're close, if not all around you. Varvok subscribed to the latter theory.

"They're stalking us you know," he told Shepard as they moved through the cavern. "Screaming and hollering, making us think they're everywhere and nowhere."

"They probably are," Shepard replied. "Keep eyes on the ceiling, they could be moving above us for all we know."

They had been walking at a snail's pace so far, trying to measure every turn and twist within the cavern itself. If the machines were smart enough that they were trying to psyche them out, then they needed to weigh every move carefully. If Shepard's experience in the _Dauntless_ had proven anything, it was that these things were specialized in ambushes.

"How far are we from your people exactly?" Shepard asked Varvok as he peered around a nearby corner.

"I can't be certain," the batarian admitted. "That vent sent me pretty far away and my men wouldn't have stayed in one place for long. They'd look for a defensible position and hold there."

"Maybe that's what we should consider," Shepard suggested. "We find a place to hold up, try to contact somebody and stay put till they reach us."

Varvok snorted at the idea.

"Against the numbers swarming out there we would not stand a chance," Varvok claimed. "Besides, these caverns are messing with my comms in any case. If yours wasn't broken, you probably wouldn't be able to contact anyone either."

"If we get to the more open sections of the catacombs we might get a better signal," Shepard told him. "At the very least if we got close to the Bridge section we could contact my team."

"I imagine that's the first place these crawling synthetics will expect us to go," Varvok argued. "We'd be walking into another trap. At least in these tight quarters their numbers don't count for much."

"I'd prefer more open ground in this case," Shepard told him. "Fewer angles they can come at us from in the more open caverns. Worst comes to worst we can fight our way to the bridge. Right now, too many twists and turns, not enough escape routes. We get charged they could lead us into a dead end or worse. And we don't have nearly enough ammo to keep them all at bay forever."

They rounded another bend, still no sign of any hostiles. Shepard kept his eyes down the sights of his shotgun as Varvok kept in pace behind him, watching their backs.

"This is all the more reason to find my people then," Varvok argued. "The whole point of this was to isolate us. It's obvious the ship somehow realized our position as leaders and reacted accordingly."

They had discussed that a while ago, it was one of the few things they seemed to agree on. It made sense to remove the suspected leaders of the intruding teams. It would leave the others vulnerable to indecision and panic. From that standpoint, Shepard thought he understood Varvok's concerns.

"I get you want to link up with your people and help them organize against these things, but we're not even sure where they are right now," he informed the batarian. "We at least know where my team is headed."

"My people can handle themselves," Varvok argued. "They are disciplined and well-trained. They will manage without me for the time being. My only concern is finding them before we are overrun. Heading to the Bridge is what they expect us to do. It is a trap."

"At least it's a direction," Shepard countered sternly. "Better than wandering around in the dark hoping we stumble upon someone we recognize."

Shepard didn't have to look back to feel the cold, icy stare Varvok was giving him. He accepted it in someways. If he was being honest, he mostly just wanted to get to the Bridge to make sure the others were okay. And If they hadn't been able to reach it for whatever reason, they could at the very least complete the mission. However, he also felt the Bridge was ultimately more defensible, as it was a finite area, with only one entrance. Easier to defend while they shut security down and ended the overall threat.

Varvok didn't seem interested in that, he wanted to find his people and hold out. It was a sensible plan in normal circumstances, but right now it wasn't. They didn't know where to go to find them and they had no idea how long it would take to even get there at this point. The machines could cut them off easily in that situation.

To his credit though, Varvok pivoted the conversation away from strategy for a bit. Perhaps it was an attempt to ease tensions. Just likely though, it was because he wanted to talk more about what they were up against.

"The fact it singled us out should be a bit more alarming to you," he stated. "This doesn't feel like the work of a simple ancient security program."

"You're probably giving them too much credit," Shepard told him flatly.

"Am I?" Varvok asked haughtily. "It assessed our level of threat, it moved to prevent us from our objective and escape, it set up ambushes with these things. This suggests an AI and you know it."

"Cortana would've detected one by now," Shepard insisted. "The Forerunner were a highly sophisticated race. What passes for a simple program to them could've been lightyears ahead of anything we have. We're not dealing with another Guilty Spark. We'd have encountered all this a lot sooner. It reacted slowly until it was certain we were after the relic. That triggered the defenses."

"Fine, the security system is not an AI," Varvok granted with a grunt. "But can you say the same of the machines? Maybe the computer is directing where they go, but they aren't dependent on it. They don't act like stupid drones that's for certain."

Shepard had to admit he had a point. These robots weren't like your typical mech soldier from back home. They didn't just advance and fire, they moved defensively, tried attacks from several angles. They weren't stupid automatons, no. So maybe they were AI, at the very least Dumb AIs carrying out a defense protocol. That didn't really change much though.

"If they're as smart as all that then we'll have to deal with it accordingly," Shepard answered plainly. "But if it is true, then that's all the more reason to be more daring in our plans. We play this too much by the book, they'll use it against us."

"Walking into a potential trap is not a good idea either," Varvok argued. "We shouldn't be taking their bait. We should stay on course to finding my people. We can organize an appropriate defense from there."

"Well you're going to have to pinpoint on the map where they might be first," Shepard harshly reminded him. "Because again, we're just wandering around aimlessly until you do."

If Varvok has any further complaints or counters, they were silenced pretty quickly. A screech echoed behind them loudly, closer than previously. Varvok stopped in his tracks, weapon pointed back from where they came from. Shepard readied one of his hands, resonating it with biotic energy. They stood there motionless, waiting for the next cry. Nothing came though, not in front or in back. Shepard shined his light ahead of him, scanning the area. For a second he thought he saw a shadow move, heard the clanking of feet. He backed up slightly, expecting to get rushed suddenly.

That was when part of the wall erupted to his left. A snapping jaw lashed out at Shepard, grabbing onto his gun and bitting down. Shepard tried to shake the robot off, wrenching it from the wall. He then struck his shotgun down on the ground, shattering the attacking machine to pieces. By this time, Varvok was firing several shots at surging machines darting along the walls from behind them.

Then, part of the ceiling burst open as another of the robots squirmed it's head out and began firing. Shepard threw himself into the wall to avoid the flurry of shots and returned fire with his own shotgun. The machine's head exploded violently and it's body dropped to the floor.

By now, both Shepard and Varvok were moving forward, although it became clear that wasn't going to work either. A second pack of the machines started surging along the walls in front of them, firing as they approached. Shepard let loose with a shockwave attack, curved along the walls of the cavern. The biotic energy threw the machines off, but more were coming. Shepard looked for an exit, only to find a small passage off to the side. Better than nothing, he thought. He tapped Varvok on the shoulder.

"This way, move!" He shouted.

Varvok let loose a few more shots and then followed Shepard into the passage, the cries of the machines echoing after them. It was apparent to them both now that whatever plan they eventually agreed upon, it didn't matter. These things would be waiting for them, ready to strike. Any time, any place, from any direction.

* * *

Kowalski woke up feeling something wet and sticky on his face. He jumped up with a start, trying to brush away whatever vile crap had just got in his eyes, nose and mouth. When his vision finally cleared and he managed to find the flashlight attached to his armor, he was able to find out who the culprit was. Standing there, holding some kind of flask, was Zek. The Jackal was raising his hands in an easing gesture, trying to placate the currently panicking Marine. Maybe he had seen Kowalski instinctively reaching for his sidearm when he jolted to his feet.

"Easy, soldier boy," Zek insisted. "We're all friends now, remember? No need to get all bent out of shape."

"The hell happened?" Kowalski demanded to know.

"From what I gathered the same thing that happened to me," Zek replied. "You fell, hit your head on a few things on the way down. I found you unconscious here and I tried slapping you awake, but that wasn't working so..."

"You threw slimy water in my face?" Kowalski asked, indignite at the action.

"No," Zek responded, sounding insulted. "I threw ichor on you. It was all I had."

Kowalski almost gagged at the revelation. He started spitting and wiping down his tongue frantically. Now the weird taste in his mouth had grown a sudden disgusting bent to it. The Jackal had thrown Space Whale Blister Bile at him! It took every ounce of willpower not to start scrubbing his tongue with rocks and dirt just to get rid of the putrid taste occupying his mouth.

"The fuck, man!" He shouted. "Why don't you have water on you?!"

"Uh, pirate," Zek responded, as if the answer should've been obvious. "Retz is the anomaly who doesn't drink. Next time get stuck in the creepy catacombs beneath the infested wreck with him."

Zek put his flask away and walked past him, pulling out his plasma pistol out as he did.

"My guess is we're a long way down and far away from our buds," he stated. "Not going to be easy navigating this maze to find them. Hell, just finding an exit is gonna be a bitch."

Slowly getting over his shocking awakening, Kowalski suddenly remembered. He didn't fall down here alone. He was about to ask Zek about Samara, if he had seen her, when there was a groan from behind them. Zek heard it too and moved to investigate. He shined his light as he saw a figure start to stand.

"Oh hey, you brought a friend," he observed. "Goody, the more the merrier on this little fuck up."

Zek soon changed his mind though. When he shone the light on the figure, he saw an asari in red armor staring back, trying to adjust her vision in the sudden onset of illumination in her eyes. Zek jumped back in fright and rushed behind Kowalski in fear.

"Shit, shit," he said, gritting through his beak. "Of all the fucking rotten luck! I wound up with the crazy space cop!"

Kowalski, for his part, was a lot more relieved to see Samara was alright. Any attempt to hide his smile from her failed horribly.

"Sam," he blurted out. "Thank God, I was worried for a second there. You hurt?"

"I am relatively fine, Private Kowalski," she assured him. "Bumps, scrapes and a few bruises, but nothing medi-gel can't resolve. Thank you for your concern regardless. It is good to see you not gravely inured as well."

"What about me?" Zek asked nervously. "Is it, uh, good to see me okay too?"

Samara just frowned.

"I hold no opinion one way or the other about your state of health, pirate," she said grimacing.

Zek came out from behind Kowalski, but he kept his distance. Samara didn't let up her gaze either, still staring him down as he moved about. Kowalski could sense this was probably not the most ideal situation for any of them right now. Thankfully, Samara eventually dropped her accusing glare to look at her omni-tool. He disgruntled look did not vanish.

"I cannot raise a communication signal," she said despondently. "We must be too deep in the caves to contact anyone."

Kowalski tried his radio, but only got a mess of static when he did.

"Seems like it," he admitted. "We still got the scans of the caves though, right? Can we use it to get ourselves back to the others?"

"We can use it to navigate the caverns, but I imagine Sergeant Johnson has already moved as far away from the wreck as possible by now," Samara said thoughtfully. "He would most likely seek out a defensible area in an attempt to buy himself time to plan his next move."

"There ain't many places you can make a stand in here," Zek stated flatly. "It's all winding tunnels and shit. If he's smart, the Sergeant is trying to get to an exit. These fuckers don't want us near the wreck, right? The further away we are, the less of a problem we become."

"Well if they're so eager to get rid of us, I imagine they also don't want us to leave," Kowalski considered aloud. "I mean, we know where they are now. What if we tell more people how to get here? If these things are here to protect this ship, they'd want to stop that, right?"

"An excellent observation, Private Kowalski," Samara congratulated. "It is why I believe we'd be better suited to attempting to regroup with our companions. We know one likely place where some might be headed, the detached Bridge Section."

"That's a pretty long walk from wherever we are," Zek snorted. "I say we get back into the wreck, try and get out from where we came. Report it into the surface team, have them storm inside and wipe the bastards out."

"Throwing more lives into danger is senseless," Samara declared. "We must resolve the problem ourselves and find a way to defeat these machines before it is too late."

Zek just rolled his eyes.

"Seriously? You want to just jump into the fire again with those things?" He chortled. "Lady, maybe you ain't keeping score here, but we got our asses kicked by a fucking dead tub and it's four-legged pack of killer synth hounds. We should get while the getting is good and come back fresh later."

"What about your men?" Kowalski asked. "I'm sure they're looking for you by now."

"More likely they think I'm dead and if we can't contact up top, neither can they," Zek explained. "Standard Pirate Code is clear on this, when things look bad, run. Retz would probably tell them to stay and look for me, but the smart thing for them to do is get out now. Then Retz can organize a search for me later, but not before."

"And you're fine with your loyal crew abandoning you in here?" Samara asked curiously with a harsh look.

"They're not abandoning me," Zek argued, not at all appreciating Samara's tone. "They're doing the smart thing. You don't stick around in a hot zone with overwhelming odds against you. You book it and you hope you get out with all your limbs attached. If they and us have any hope of surviving this, we should get out of here while the getting is good."

"I will not leave good men to face these terrors alone," Samara declared proudly. "Justicars do not flee when there are those who need them."

"Justicars sound like pretty fucking stupid bleeding hearts then," Zek growled.

Samara's body lit up with biotic energy as she glared at Zek. Instantly, the Pirate jumped back and tried to hide behind Kowalski again. Samara's glower intensified at the action. So typical of his kind, she thought. Kowalski quickly raised his hands between them.

"Okay, okay, could we all relax," he requested. "We're on the same side here. We are going to need each other to get out of this."

"Correction, Private Kowalski," the asari was quick reply. "I am not on his side, I am unfortunately bound to my oath to Shepard to not kill him. Were the circumstances different, the Pirate would already be dead."

"As you love to keep reminding me," Zek said, returning an angry glare of his own. "This Pirate saved your ass, remember? And I thought the ODSTs were ungrateful shits."

Samara stopped looking at the Jackal out of disgust, addressing only Kowalski as she spoke.

"We do not need him," she said firmly. "If he wishes to run like a coward, let him. From the sound of things, his crew will not miss him should he perish."

"Those machines outnumber us, Sam, more so than ever now," Kowalski reminded her. "We need every gun we can get and his plasma pistols have an EMP function, remember? It's probably the most effective weapon we got on hand right now. We should stick together, it might be the only way we get out of this alive."

Samara looked contemplative for a moment, then her biotic resonance subsided.

"As much as it pains me to admit, your logic is sound, Private," she relented. "We are lost in these tunnels and if we have any hope of escaping we must use every advantage we possess. But I will not run from the danger as he wishes to. We must find the others and assist them."

"I'm with you on that, believe me," Kowalski told her, looking over to Zek next. "And I get your point too about trying to contact the surface. I think Johnson might have the same idea. If we get up high enough in these catacombs, maybe our radios can cut through all the clutter and connect to our teams. Then we can direct them to find us. Better than heading back into the wreck and fighting our way back out where we came, especially when it's just the three of us."

Zek, to his credit, took Kowalski's plan into consideration. The Jackal scratched the underside of his beak thoughtfully, trying to work out the angles. He was interrupted by a metallic shriek, however. Samara pointed her weapon at the shadows, her eyes darting about to locate the threat. Kowalski did the same, as did Zek, but they could see nothing.

"Okay, we can try your plan," Zek blurted out nervously. "But, may I suggest we start moving now."

"That I can agree with," Samara concurred. "Let us not waste more time."

Kowalski just nodded and the trio took off once more. He hoped his plan would work. He also hoped that he could keep Sam and Zek from killing each other before they found a way out of this mess. He wasn't really worried about Samara to be honest. He really did not want to get singled out by the Space Pirates for letting their Captain get slaughtered, though. Life in this makeshift fleet of theirs was awkward enough already.

This was the textbook definition of Situation Normal All Fucked Up. She'd fight anyone who claimed otherwise. Unit separated, total darkness, deep in enemy territory, potentially surrounded on all sides, limited ammo, no contact with command and currently lost in a maze of tunnels with no clear direction of where to go. So much for this being a simple treasure hunt, McKay thought.

* * *

She had managed to keep a few squads from getting separated, but the _Dauntless'_ ability to reconfigure itself had split the unit up more than a few times. Eventually, the pace of the changes slowed enough that McKay was able to get what was left out of an open airlock. That thankfully included all the _Normandy_ crewmembers in their search party, but that still left one too many ODSTs stranded out there. Worse for McKay was the fact many of them were in fact supporters of her command. Besides Buck's team and another squad, what was left of the unit still with were more aligned with Sergeant Lendon's current thinking.

At first she wasn't sure what to do. She briefly considered heading towards the only other major landmark inside these caves, the Bridge section of the wreck. However, she quickly shot that down. Chances were these machines were still hunting them. If they headed to the Bridge now, they'd lead every single robot there with them. That would put Shepard's team at risk of getting overrun by the little metal freaks. Shutting down the security there was the only chance any of them had in the long run. So, McKay decided they needed to keep away from the Bridge for now and prioritize locating the other ODSTs and any other survivors who had escaped the wreck. For once, everyone, even Lendon, seemed to agree with that plan.

Wandering through the maze of tunnels, McKay kept trying to pick up anything on the radio, but could only get static. She growled in annoyance at it all. Of all the times for comms to be on the fritz. With any luck it was just a proximity issue exacerbated by these caverns. That way, when they got close enough, they could find someone, anyone, and start to regroup.

"Keep an eye out for movement, watch your corners," she reminded the squads. "I don't want us getting ambushed again while we're in here."

No one believed for a second that the robots were done with them just because they were outside the _Dauntless_ now. The sounds of the screeching cries made that clear enough. The thought of getting ambushed in the dark did not sit well with anyone. It was better than being inside a wreck that could rearrange itself at a whim though. At least the security system had no power over the tunnels and whatever sensors it had been using to track them within the _Dauntless_ didn't extend out here. At least McKay hoped they didn't.

"How many of our friends you think got out in time?" Buck asked her as they trudged through the dark.

"Hopefully enough to mount a decent enough defense until we're declared overdue and they send in reinforcements," McKay responded, scanning the dark with her light. "If we're really lucky, we end up with enough squads to fight our way out to the surface and out of this hole."

"I'm going to keep hoping for that option, if you don't mind," Buck told her. "Today has made me realize us Drop Troopers weren't meant be stuck underground. I mean, the word Orbital is in our name for reason."

It was nice to have someone give some levity to the situation, McKay at least knew she needed it. Her thoughts were otherwise permeated with the grim reality that they were trapped down here in the dark with an unknown enemy. Not exactly a confidence booster when half your Unit hated you. She tried not to focus on that too much, they just needed to find some Marines and work out their next move. Once they did that, maybe things would start looking up then.

"Anyone got anything on their motion trackers?" McKay called out down the line. "Hostiles? Friends?"

She got a mix of shaking heads and responses of no. She wanted to be happy about that, but they had barely gotten any tracking on the wreck before the bots attacked. She wanted something, anything, a blip, whatever. Perhaps the tunnels winded about too much to pick up anything significant.

"Jack, be ready to hit anything the sounds metallic and screechy with your biotics the second you spot it," she ordered.

"Way ahead of you, boss lady," Jack replied smugly, her shotgun pointed down range and at the ready. "Me and Thane, got this shit covered."

"I still suggest we find a more open space," Thane added, his pistol by his side. "These tunnels are far too enclosed to make any real stand."

"We'll find a good place to hold up," McKay assured him. "We got the scans, we just need to figure out exactly where we are."

The third _Normandy_ crewmember, Zaeed, approached at that moment from behind. He looked cautious, concerned, his grip on his assault rifle tight. McKay did not like the grim look on the man's face either.

"I don't mean to tell you how to run your unit, but you best watch out for more than just metal crawlies," he forewarned. "I've been going up and down the line, I keep hearing about what Lendon is going to do when you bite it or freeze up or lead them astray."

"Well there's no sense in speculating, because that's not happening," McKay stated clearly. "If they have seriously forgotten my prowess, then they will be reminded soon enough."

"I just hope you're ready to put them in line when the time comes," Zaeed told her gravely. "I had me a disloyal bunch before, it did not end well for me."

McKay agreed with Zaeed, she wanted to just snap her fingers and just make everyone get back in line already, but it wasn't so simple. She had disciplined them, she had drilled them, she had even tried to make peace with them by giving up her extra rations to them. Nothing seemed to work, they all still saw her as a traitor. What else did they need? What else did they want? She was sick of this shit, but at this point all she could really do was try to remind them why she was Silva's second. They didn't have to like her, but they should at least respect her combat abilities. She trained most of this unit, worked with them for years. She refused to believe one decision was enough to wash all that away, but it was starting to look like she'd never get back to where she was before the mutiny.

Suddenly, she thought she heard something up ahead, shuffling of feet, muffled sounds, she wasn't entirely sure. Could be Marines, could be more of the bots. McKay raised her hand to stop the column and approached he turn cautiously. She looked at her motion tracker and thought she saw a few blips. Buck backed her up, along with a few other ODSTs and Zaeed. They moved to the corner and then advanced through, ready for anything.

They found Marines, a few of them, and a lot more Batarians and Jackals all huddled around a large open space within the tunnels. The batarians and their space pirate buddies spotted them instantly. As if by instinct they went for their own weapons the second they saw a few humans pointing their own at them. The Jackals did the same, reaching for their own sidearms or powering up their shields. Both groups stared each other down, not moving, the Marines caught in the middle looking confused.

The stare down continued for a few seconds more, both sides glower at the other. McKay hadn't raised her own weapon, but she hadn't relaxed her trigger finger either. She knew she had to get them all to stand down, that this was pointless, but a part of her brain, her training, kept her from doing so right away. The silence of the whole moment was interrupted when another Jackal scampered in from out of a corner, pulling his armored greaves back up.

"Ah, man, that was a good drain," he chuckled for a moment. Then he realized what he had walked back into and his expression dampened slightly. "Uh, should I go back to the pissing corner? Cause..."

The interruption was enough to relax McKay's mind. Allowing her to finally let herself give the order everyone needed to hear.

"Weapons down, relax," she told everyone. "We're on the same side, remember?"

The ODSTs reluctantly relaxed their guns. The Jackals and Batarians did the same, almost as slowly. At least they weren't going to shoot each other, that was one potential problem taken care of. One of the batarians approached McKay, his rifle at his side.

"So, more humans made it out," he noted.

"Where'd you find them?" McKay asked, motioning her head towards the Marines among the group.

The batarian looked briefly at the Marines among his group as he answered.

"They wandered into our squad's path looking for more of their people," the alien explained. "We decided to offer them assistance, we needed the extra guns more than anything."

At least he was being honest, McKay thought. She looked around at the assorted grouping, who had mostly gone back to minding their own business now. The Marines had gotten up to greet some of the ODSTs, but McKay remaining standing in front of the batarian. She could only assume he was the highest ranking officer here, an assumption that proved accurate.

"Sergeant Revtok, I'm the Lieutenant Commander's second on this mission," he informed her. "You must be Lieutenant Melissa McKay of the ODSTs. I should've assumed you'd have made it out as well somehow."

He knew her, she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Even if he was a rank lower than her, it probably wouldn't matter much. Lendon hardly listened to her after all and he was a subordinate too. There was no sense in making things awkward again though, so she tried to keeping it cordial.

"We managed, it's part of the job," she responded. "How'd you guess it was me?"

"Everyone in this Alliance is more than aware of your reputation and the problems you've had recently," he explained. "It's not exactly a big secret honestly. Once I realized you were female the dots connected themselves."

Great, he was up on current events, that didn't exactly inspire confidence. How were they going to work together if he knew about her command troubles? She tried to keep matters focused on the problem at hand.

"Have you had any other encounters with our robotic hosts?" She asked him.

"Small squads, hit and run attacks," the batarian answered plainly. "They seem crafted as attempts to disorient and scatter us, break us down into smaller units. They had some success in that with our kig-yar friends and your Marines."

"But you all managed to stick together then?" Buck asked inquisitively.

"Lieutenant Commander Varvok trained us to beware of such tactics," Revtok explained. "We stayed close, remained cohesive. I imagine your ODSTs did the same."

"Like I said, we managed," McKay answered bluntly. "Where is your CO now?"

Revtok looked down momentarily in silence, never a good sign.

"He made sure all of us got off the wreck before he left himself," Revtok explained. "We believe the ship somehow managed to separate him from us while attempting his own escape."

"So he's dead then?" Jack asked rather tactlessly.

Revtok glared at her briefly, but remained assertive.

"He is not dead," he claimed. "Lieutenant Commander Varvok would not allow a mindless hunk of metal to beat him. He is alive and we will find him or he will find us."

McKay was impressed by the ardent display of loyalty. It was so sincere and unflinching. Varvok had clearly fostered a great sense of admiration among his men. The kind all leaders wanted to instill in their followers. If only the more disgruntled half of her unit were similar in this regard, some of her problems wouldn't feel so daunting.

"What about the Jackal leader, Zek," McKay asked. "Is he around?"

"Unfortunately no, he is also lost," Revtok relented. "His men claim the ship's floor opened up and swallowed him. We don't know where either are."

Then it was just down to them, this ragtag band of assorted unit of different lifeforms, one third of which had some misgivings about the other two thirds. They had to get through this together and she was the highest ranking officer it seemed among anyone here. She suddenly wished she had an extra cup of coffee that morning, because this was not what she wanted at all. She could barely command one unit, now she technically had three, not counting the small squad of Marines mixed in. Perhaps it was best not to phrase things as her taking charge in that case. The batarians probably wouldn't like being commanded by a human while their real leader was missing.

"Well, until your leaders show up, we should pool our resources together," she suggested. "We can come up with a plan of action together."

"Together?" Revtok asked, sounding skeptical. "As in, shared command of a sort?"

"I only think that's fair," McKay pointed out. "You know your men better than I do. It would be best for everyone I think if we kept our respective commands until further notice."

"We shall see if that holds true, Lieutenant," Revtok told her. "Right now, all I care about is finding Varvok so he may lead us to victory."

She was fine with that, at least it meant she wouldn't be the highest ranking person here. However, if this was going to be a real joint task force, they were missing a third member. As much as she hated to admit it, they would need to coordinate with the Jackals too.

"Who is in charge of the Pirates right now?" She asked him.

"Their command structure is a bit more chaotic than either of ours," Revtok admitted. "Before your Marines showed up many of them were split on their precise course of action. Some want to try heading for the Bridge section to see if they can actually earn a profit on this, others want to make a go for the surface and get new orders from Retz."

"They don't want to search for Zek?" Thane asked, perplexed at the news.

"From what I understand it's part of their code," Revtok shrugged. "If the shipmaster is lost, he gets left behind until further notice. To be fair to them, they're hoping he's alive, they just don't want to risk their necks saving them."

"Typical pirate mentality," Zaeed said rather plainly. "I'd be more critical if I hadn't left behind one too many men on a mission myself."

Zaeed had become infamous for not exactly inspiring confidence. McKay was starting to learn why. He had one too many stories about how his missions ended up with everyone but him dead. To his credit, he did acknowledge he probably shouldn't be in charge of anything given how things had gone for him. Probably why he preferred to work for other people for money, or whatever his working relationship with Commander Shepard was. From what she understood, it was complicated.

"So they're divided," said McKay, speaking of the Jackals. "Do they have anything resembling a leader as of now?"

Revtok thought for a moment and then looked back at the crowd, scanning it.

"There was one," he said, his four eyes searching the crowd. "Most everyone looked to him when we all joined up. Not really for leadership mind you, but it's something. There he is."

Revtok pointed to a Jackal hunched over something with his back turned to them. McKay didn't waste anytime in approaching the alien. The others followed her, curious to meet this defacto leader of the Jackals for the moment. He looked busy, his arms feverishly moving about, but she needed to figure out what the intentions of the Jackals were before they could start making plans.

"Excuse me," she began. "I'm Lieutenant McKay, I'd like to speak to you about-"

"HA! Got it!"

The Jackal suddenly sprouted up from the ground, holding something in his hand. He lifted the goggles covering his face up to his short feathered mohawk and grinned. It was only then he noticed McKay in his peripheral vision and looked to her directly.

"Uh, what do you got?" McKay asked curiously.

"Piece of equipment I was working on," he explained in a higher pitched rasp. "More on it in a second, intros first. Kaz, engineering technician, I remember you from the _Serpent_ when you brought that Huragok aboard for an emergency fix. McKay, right?"

"Yes, that's me," she reiterated, a bit offput by how forward and friendly the Jackal appeared to be. Maybe he was just in a good mood after fixing what was in his hand, a subject she quickly brought up again. "What exactly is that thing you got working?"

Kaz presented the device to her, still seemingly pleased with himself. It was hand-held electronic tablet of some kind. Bulkier than a datapad and with a holographic display.

"This here is an Energy Fluctuations Detector," Kaz explained. "We use it aboard the ship to find possible power imbalances within the system. I brought it with me to help Zek look for potential hot spots on the wreck, see if any tech was still active. Just before those little synths attacked I got a major spike and in the mess that followed it got damaged by one of the bastards. I've been trying to patch it since and I finally managed it thanks to some of the tools the batarians had on hand."

"That's nice for you, pal, but how's that help us?" Jack asked him rather bluntly.

"Just give it a look and you'll see," Kaz insisted.

He opened up the holographic display, showing a mini-map of the wreck of the _Dauntless_ and the tunnel system around it. Kax began scrolling through it, noting all the little energy spikes in the tunnels that tablet was highlighting.

"My best guess is that all of those little dots are high concentrations of our synth playmates," Kaz explained. "As you can see, they got a substantial presence."

"We could use this to avoid them then," Zaeed reasoned, for once sound optimistic. "Or at the very least let us know when they're on our tails."

"How is this working when all our other equipment is on the fritz?" McKay asked inquisitively. As much as she wanted to believe it was viable, she needed to be sure first.

"It does work like a radio or a motion tracker," Kaz explained beaming. "It's a long range deep detection device. It had to be to properly locate power anomalies on a ship with a lot of nooks and crannies. I just had to boost the power to the signal output to overcome the additional size of the wreck and the surrounding tunnels. And, yes, it can potentially warn us of incoming synths, but the real kicker is here. Remember that major power spike?"

Kaz eventually scrolled to a place beneath the lowest point of the _Dauntless'_ current resting place. From the look of it, there was a very large resonating power spike located there. While McKay didn't see the full point Kaz was trying to make just yet, she was intrigued. What could be generating that much power? A possible explanation came to mind.

"Is it the relic?" She asked. "I thought that was on the Bridge."

"I'm not sure it's the Relic we're after," Kaz admitted. "The energy signature is strong, but I'm getting a bigger spike on the Bridge itself. I do think it's related in someway to the synths though, the signature is eerily similar to theirs."

"It could be their power source or some kind of relay," Buck suggested.

"Whatever it is, if it's related to these machines, maybe it's worth investigating," McKay stated in assertive and direct tone. "It could be the key to shutting them down."

"Cortana said we could only do that from the Bridge," Jack reminded her.

"As far as she could tell," McKay reasoned. "Maybe there's another way. The point is, if this power spike is related to these machines, taking it out might at the very least slow these bastards down and give us a fighting chance."

She turned to Revtok, standing just a few feet away from them.

"It could give Varvok a fighting chance if he's still alive and being hunted like we are," she told him rather bluntly.

Revtok looked at her, still skeptical, but also maybe a little impressed. His eyes said seemed to say "well played" to her. That gave McKay reason to hope this wouldn't be so difficult.

"If destroying whatever is giving off this power spike potentially injures our enemies, then it will make searching or escaping these tunnels all the easier," the batarian quickly deduced. "I will inform the men that we have an objective that serves all interests."

"Could also be some expensive looking Forerunner tech," Kaz added. "Might be worth the risk for profit alone, but it's still going to be a risk. It's deep in their territory right now."

"With any luck we can find more of the scattered Marines along the way to boost our numbers," McKay told him. "What's important now is we have a clear goal in mind. I'll tell my men and we can think up a plan together."

Revtok and Kaz seemed to agree, even if all their reasons for going along with this were vastly different from each other. Revtok's was simple loyalty, Kaz and the Jackals potential profit. For McKay was about staying on mission and doing what she could to defeat the enemy. It also gave her an excuse to search the tunnels, find more of the lost Marines or at least give them a fighting chance. If this power spike was indeed somehow important to these crawling robots, then taking it out could hinder them significantly. Still, concerns remains, as Buck pointed out when the other two leaders departed to talk to their own men.

"This is not going to be easy to explain to everyone," Buck told her. "We haven't really worked directly with any of our new friends until now."

"We don't have a choice, we need the manpower to push through their territory," McKay responded. "Lendon and the rest will just have to deal with it. Until these robots are shut down, the grudges we used to harbor are unimportant. Now, we should talk with the Marine squad. Maybe they can shed some light on where Sergeant Johnson might be. We find him and his unit, we stand better chance at pulling this off."

"I'm with you, Lieutenant," Buck assured her. "One hundred percent, let's just hope that the percentage is a high with everyone else involved, regardless of blood color."

McKay hoped the same thing. All she knew for sure though was the next few hours would probably define her role as the leader of this ODST unit. She wasn't about to fail, not with so many people possibly hoping she would. She'd be damned if she allow any of them to be proven right about her.

* * *

The Master Chief hugged the wall as they moved, keeping his ears open for anything. The echo of the tunnels was off-putting, but he tried to remain focused. The screeching of the crawling bots was either communicative or psychological, either way he wouldn't let it throw him off. He fell back on his training, find the source of the sound, use that to locate the most likely position. Don't allow the enemy to play mind games, use them to your advantage. It helped of course he had Legion backing him up, who was also trying to triangulate the echoes with it's own software. The latest screech gave the geth a good indication of what they were up against.

"Estimated three or more down left-side cavern path," the synthetic stated. "Possibly tracking friendly units."

"Not us though," Chief added. "That sounded faded early, they're moving away."

"We concur," Legion replied. "Way forward clear."

They moved up towards a large open space in the caves, guns pointed outward. Chief activated his flashlight and pointed it at the floor, searching for any clues.

"So we're beneath the room where we lost sight of the Commander now?" He asked Legion.

"Approximately," the geth answered simply. "Calculated possible descent trajectory security system would've used. Cross-referencing with tunnel system suggested this most likely landing spot."

Chief's light suddenly came upon an impression in the dirt. He knelt down, keeping his light pointed ahead as Legion joined him. It was clear this was from an impact with the cavern floor with the way the dirt was strewn out and Chief could at least make out a human handprint in the loose soil.

"Looks like your calculations were dead on, Legion," Chief congratulated the synthetic. "And since there's no body, we can assume the Commander at least didn't die here. He's probably injured though, that was quite a fall."

"Trajectory of tunnels leading down to this location suggest descent slowed," Legion surmised. "Armor may have cushioned fall further, but Shepard-Commander has likely sustained some damage."

Chief followed the path in the dirt, footprints he recognized as the Commander's. He tracked them to a small corner in the cavern and found a mess of similar tracks. They did not match Shepard's combat boot though, someone else was here.

"He found another survivor, guess they paired up and headed down that catacomb," Chief said, pointing down one of the tunnels. "At least he's not alone down here, he might stand a better chance than we thought."

"Shepard-Commander has been known to overcome the highly likely odds of termination in less favorable circumstances," Legion complimented. "This alone lends reason to be optimistic."

"Let's just hope we can get to him in time," Chief told Legion. "Come on, these tracks are old but we can catch up if we hurry."

Before they could move very far though, Chief thought he heard something down their intended tunnel. He held up his hand to pause Legion and shut off his light. Scurrying out of the dark, just ahead of them, was a lone crawling robot. It scampered about, searching the adjacent area. Chief could only think of one possibility.

"Scout," he whispered. "Probably one of many searching the area."

"Unlikely it strayed far," Legion surmised. "Likely remained in close proximity to others. It will alert them to our position if we are spotted."

"Then we take it out without guns," Chief suggested. "We just need a distraction."

"We can provide a solution," Legion assured activating his omni-tool.

Legion activated their combat drone, but disabled it's attack functions. The little roving ball formed close to a small boulder nearby and gave off a radiant light. This attracted the crawler bot, as it cautiously approached the light, opening it's mouth wide as it crept up. It kept facing front as it investigated the light, leaving it's backside open to attack. Chief and Legion moved away slightly as it approached, giving it enough space to close in on the light. It moved around the corner of the boulder to find the drone, tilting its head in confusion. That was when Chief struck.

The Spartan rushed from the shadows and tackled the the machine to the ground. It tried to claw and screech, but to no avail. The Spartan smashed his fist into the robot's head. That seemed to deactivate the metallic menace, as the lights dimmed from it's body and it went limp in Chief's grasp. Holding it by the neck, the Spartan stood back up as Legion regrouped with him.

"Strange looking thing, huh?" He asked the Geth

"We have seen many combat mechs designed for security," Legion said as they examined it. "But this unit's construction is far more complicated."

Chief examined the machine for himself. It had a lot more segmented parts than expect from most military drones. That was what allowed it to be so agile and quick, its design allowed it to move with greater speed than other machines of its kind. He also noticed the sharp claws on the tips of the robots feet. Clearly designed to allow it to climb on any surface and attack from any angle. That gave it the ability to ambush the enemy from anywhere. That made it perfect for hit and run attacks, but within these tunnels that made it even more deadly. These enclosed spaces were practically made for them.

Legion activated its omni-tool once again and scanned the machine thoroughly. Data accumulated on the screen quickly and the Geth's single eye widened. Chief got a look for himself, moving beside the Geth to watch the holographic screen. He saw a representation of the robot with various specifications highlighted.

"This unit's body structure is significantly armored, the head is less so," Legion explained. "Your blow did sufficient damage to its internal circuitry."

"Well at least we know a decent enough weakspot now," Chief said.

"There is more," Legion told him. "Despite complexity of design, we recognize similarities between this unit and our own platform. Hardware built for greater processing speed. This is not conducive with simple drone construct."

Legion didn't have to spell it out further. He had paid attention to Doctor Halsey when she talked about the procedure for his neural implants. The ones that allowed Cortana to be installed into his armor.

"This thing is controlled by an AI," he stated.

"Most likely," Legion answered. "However, given the advanced construction and design, it would be no simple program. This machine is designed to house a significantly advanced intelligence within it. Given our past experiences, it is safe to conclude at this point that the Forerunner's knowledge of Artificial Intelligence far exceeded our own."

This was the last thing Chief needed to hear. They had already faced one Forerunner AI and barely came out on top. Now they were dealing with a swarm of them, each far more deadly that Guilty Spark had been. Given how crazy Spark had become over the years guarding Halo, it was safe to say these crawling robots were probably just as insane if not more.

"If these things are like Guilty Spark, then they're not going to stop until they fulfill their programming," he told Legion. "And from what we know, that most likely means making sure we never leave here alive."

"If Program-Cortana is correct, Creator-Tali'Zorah and the others will be able to terminate the security protocol," Legion elaborated. "However, it is unlikely that it will shut down all of these machines. Enough will remain online to pose a problem, running their programming to completion as Guilty Spark attempted. There is likely a central processor directing the units autonomously. Shutting it down may force the rest of the machines into standby mode."

"We still need to find Shepard first," Chief insisted. "Then we can worry about taking these crawling bots down together."

Legion's omni-tool suddenly started blinking, as an indicator pointed towards the head.

"The unit is still inoperative, but we have detected an isolated power fluctuation within the central cavity," Legion explained. "It is separate from that of the main system."

Chief wasted no time, there was only one way to figure out what the omni-tool was reading. He gripped the head of the crawling robot's body and tore it open. Reaching inside, he felt something close to where the mouth was. He wrenched free and saw what it was. It looked like gun, a bulky pistol of some kind, but unlike anything he'd seen. It resonated with an orange glow while it's trigger and stock wrapped around his hand.

"This must be what they used to shoot at us," he quickly deduced. "Could come in handy."

There was another shrieking noise, coming from behind them.

"Enemy units encroaching on our position," Legion warned. "Probable reason: Loss of contact with other scout."

"Let's make ourselves scarce then," Chief told him. "Shepard is still out there, we got to find him."

They set off down another set of tunnels, with a bit more knowledge of their enemy and a new resolve. Find Shepard, find what was keeping these robots running and then take it out.

* * *

Taq's plasma axe was more than enough to break through the lock on the door after a few clean strikes. It took only slightly longer to force the entrance open wide thanks to the efforts of the Spartans. Before long the group was inside the the detached Bridge section, although not on the bridge proper just yet. Whether it was the hasty detachment during the crash or just by design, apparently a large chunk of the _Dauntless'_ Command Deck had gone with the Bridge during the separation.

The team soon found themselves in a large open hallway, opulent in scope. Similar to Covenant vessels, it felt almost like walking inside a temple, with high walls moving up towards an elaborate arched ceiling. There were also relatively large statues on either side of the corridor. Their regal looking bodies and adorned heads suggested these were depictions of the Forerunners themselves, but there was little in the way of distinguishing features. The face were blank, making the sculptures in general more abstract.

"For a cargo ship it's very well decorated," Kat observed as they kept walking.

"It's possible this area was retrofitted afterwards," Taq suggested. "If the Forerunners could alter how their ships looked it's likely it wouldn't have taken much time or energy to reconstruct the Command Deck to a design of their choosing."

"It's still just transporting cargo," Linda reminded her. "Even if they did do a makeover, why bother with sprucing the place up? What purpose does it serve?"

"If you mean operational wise, none," Taq stated flatly. "It serves no purpose. However, given the _Dauntless_ was on a mission to colonize a new dimension while this one was getting torn apart by these Flood creatures you mentioned, my guess is they did it for morale. I doubt the ship was only transporting artifacts, I bet a few extra people came aboard hoping to flee the end times. They probably reserved the best accommodations for the elites in their little civilization, up here on the Command Deck. So they tried to make them feel more at home on their exodus."

While that a made certain sort of cruel sense and had historical precedent, Tali somewhat hoped Taq was wrong about that. Surely a race as advanced as the Forerunners wasn't so divided along class lines. They must've transcended that long ago. Then again, perhaps she was just projecting her own values a little. Given the history of her own people, she couldn't help but feel a little bit of kinship with those who had tried to use this ship to escape to better life. Even if she knew anyone who escaped this universe back then most likely met a similarly gruesome end when the Reapers arrived back in her home universe, at least it would've felt like a new beginning for a short while. The subject of the Forerunner Exodus of course prompted another question in her mind, one she hadn't really gotten the answer to before.

"Taq, before we met and Zek told you about the Flood, what exactly did you think killed the Forerunners?" The quarian asked curiously. "You mentioned before you didn't believe the Covenant's story."

"Because it made no sense," Taq snorted with a slight chuckle in reply. "Top of their game, whole galaxy at their feet, why the hell would they leave all that for some mystic mumbo jumbo enlightenment? No, I believed they had all died out for another reason. A massive epidemic they couldn't get ahead of fast enough. Uprising from the various little races they felt they controlled. They killed each other during a very bloody internal conflict. New enemy even they couldn't beat. Those all seemed like far more likely scenarios than whatever nonsense they tried to feed me. Turns out I wasn't too far off with my educated guesses. The Flood was both an epidemic and an enemy they couldn't beat from the sound of it."

"Now I'm wondering how you stayed alive in that school you studied at," Linda noted. "Doesn't sound like you could've been very popular."

"Not acting like a self-righteous douche who already knows all the answers will do that," Taq shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't need friends in that shithole anyway. I just needed to last long enough to get the education I needed so I could work on getting the answers to my questions. Specifically the ones that none of my teachers would even ask themselves. I stuck to smaller, less controversial things for my papers, things that weren't heretical to talk about. When I felt I got what I needed I started playing rabble-rouser again, figured they'd at least let me finish up before denying my doctorate. Guess I was being overly optimistic up until the point they told me I was no longer welcome."

Tali now kept wondering about what a Covenant school would look like. She remembered her classes aboard the Flotilla, how they related more to basic survival than anything else. From the sound of things, Covenant College was more akin to religious indoctrination than a real learning experience. Of course, getting expelled from a place like that usually had more consequences than losing a degree.

"Did they... do anything to you?" Tali asked cautiously, not sure if she should prod.

"Nothing I wasn't prepared for," Taq admitted, not at all as troubled as Tali had feared she'd be. "A brand on my shoulder that blacklisted me from any other schools and any legitimate job in the Covenant Archaeological Wayfinder Corps. Basically just another branch of the military, not where I wanted to be. I wanted more freedom, more independence, the ability to plan my own expeditions. They unwittingly forced that option upon me. I guess that's why I fell in with pirates so fast, as much as I hate to admit it, Zek and I do share some things in common."

Before she could continue that line of thought though, Taq's eyes were suddenly drawn away from the group and towards a terminal spanning the length of a wall up ahead of them. Behind it was a large abstract looking piece of machinery. None of the parts that formed the device seemed to be connected, but they resonated with an orange hue. Taq rushed up to it, her eyes alight once more with curiosity.

"Is this the security console?" Linda asked as they caught up to the Jackal.

"No, the Bridge is still a bit a ways," Taq explained as she began overlooking the console before her.

"Then explain to me why we suddenly need to stop here when we still have a job to do," Linda requested sternly. "We don't have time to hack another computer when we still got one managing this wreck's security."

"We don't need to hack it," Taq assured her. "This looks to be public use. We just need to reconnect it to that device up there. Shouldn't take too long, I promise."

Linda, seeing that they'd get no work done with her distracted like this, motioned to Kat and Tali to see about helping her. As they moved up to assist the Jackal, Linda took watch, pointing her rifle back down the corridor they had walked through. Just in case there were any of the crawling terrors following them.

"If you don't mind me asking," Kat spoke up as she opened up a panel on the side of the console. "For someone who doesn't believe they were Gods, why take such an interest in the Forerunners?"

"Besides the fact it's all you ever hear about when you're a kid?" Taq responded curtly as fiddled with some of the console commands. "I suppose I've always been fascinated with history. My mother owned a salvaging company, went after all kinds of old wrecks like this one. Never Forerunner, but a lot of old ships nonetheless, some from even before the Covenant showed up at our doorstep. For her it was mostly just about the money, me though?"

She stopped her work suddenly, her voice and thoughts clearly wandering as she spoke.

"I always wanted to know more," she stated distantly. "I wanted to know about who had lived aboard those vessels, what their stories were, how they lived. My mother only ever really understood the value of scrap metal and discarded weapons systems. I saw value in the smaller, personal things, mementos of those who had worked aboard those ships. She let me collect a bunch of them, something to keep me distracted while we were on jobs. Was she surprised when selling my collection paid for practically my entire tuition."

"Cute story," Kat admitted. "But that still begs the question, why the Forerunners?"

"Because someone had to start asking real questions about them," Taq declared, snapping out of her nostalgia instantly. "Someone had to get to the real story and not all this crap they kept feeding us that could never be true. Everyone around me was either too indoctrinated or just didn't care, like my Mom. It wasn't enough to just say I didn't believe the doctrine, I wanted to know who the real Forerunners were. They were the biggest mystery no one wanted to solve."

"So it's about the truth for you then?" Tali asked. "Discovering the reality rather than the myth?"

"Not all kig-yar only value the shiny things," Taq told her, turning back to the console. "Many, like me, consider material wealth secondary. There is power in history, in old stories and legends, if we only seek it out. Our people have had so much of our culture lost, I suppose it was only natural that I sought to uncover the truth of lost civilization."

Tali understood that feeling all too well. Seeking for answers, trying to bridge the past and the present. She could relate to that desire in more than a few ways. Of course, Taq quickly muddled any sense of comparison when she spoke next.

"I do still like the shiny things though," she suddenly added, losing the sombre tone and growing a wicked grin upon her beak. "They're nice to look at and they keep me from starving."

Tali rolled her eyes a little as Taq continued her work on the console. As she pressed a command, however, a buzzing sound resonated from the terminal and the panel flashed red. Taq slammed her fist onto the board in frustration.

"Ugh, command error," she growled. "See, this is why they weren't Gods. If they were divine beings, half their shit wouldn't have these kinds of problems a million some odd years later."

"Don't worry," Tali assured the Jackal, activating her omni-tool. "We'll handle this. Cortana?"

The AI soon appeared on Tali's omni-tool and just as quickly connected herself to the console itself.

"Defragging the code now and reintroducing connection," the AI explained. "It just needs a power reroute. Noble Two, there should be a power node near your section. You just need to realign the-"

"Got it!" Kat suddenly spoke up.

Almost immediately, the machinery behind the device began to spin slowly. It formed into an hourglass shape, the top half turning clockwise, the bottom half turning counter to it. The orange light resonated brighter before it activated a small beam which soon spread out in a large holographic image. Pictures slowly flashed on the screen, detailing what looked to be cities, ships, people, accompanied by what looked to be text. Even Linda couldn't help but take her eyes off the corridor and stare up at the screen in a bit of awe.

"Alright, what am I looking at?" She asked hesitantly.

"From what I'm reading off this terminal, it's history," Cortana answered dutifully. "This is a log detailing a portion of Forerunner history, downloaded into this machine for preservation purposes."

The images continued to play on screen, flashing before their eyes like a vid at double speed. Cortana tried to slow it down, but even then the information still came at them in a hurried pace. Tali could scarcely follow anything herself, not until Cortana up and paused the program outright.

"Near as I can tell, there's about seven hundred and fifty years worth of historical records in this mini-archive," Cortana explained. "From what I've managed to skim, it's mostly about their civilization through the ages during their early expansion after the defeat of their great rivals, which go unnamed."

"Erasing your enemies from history," Kat noted. "A favorite pastime of Joseph Stalin and the Pharaohs of Egypt as I recall. Seems the Forerunners invented it first though."

"Any files in there about conflicts?" Linda asked curiously. "Wars? Weapons? Something pertaining to the relic we're after?"

Cortana shook her head.

"This doesn't cover that," she answered, pointing her thumb back at the holo-screen. "It's about infrastructure, important philosophers, explorers, agriculture, the construction of settlements that grew into cities. Basically they boring stuff that doesn't make the blockbuster vids for the summer but cover the majority of a lot of historical periods."

"Well if you're rebuilding your civilization, you probably want to keep a record handy on how you started it out," Taq surmised. "Obviously, this is something of a instruction guide for when they were to arrive in their new home."

"It's more than just that," Tali intercede suddenly, her voice more sombre than the rest. "It's... it's their history. It's everything they were. Even if it's just a small part, it's about who they were as a people. They watched their Empire crumble around them. They were trying to save small piece of it in some form."

The quarian looked over to Taq with a thoughtful expression in her silver eyes.

"It's like you said before," she reminded the Jackal. "Not everything valuable is material. Stories are valuable too, and this is theirs. At least one chapter of it anyway."

Taq looked to Tali a bit surprised at first, and then she grinned.

"Careful there," she cautioned the quarian. "I might just end up liking you."

"She tends to do that to people," Kat informed her. "Now then, are we moving onto the bridge?"

"Yes, there's far too much data here for us to compile in one sitting and we don't have that kind of time," Taq said hurriedly. "I'll try to get what I can later, we still have our grand prize to net first."

Taq led the group over to another sealed door. After a few seconds of having Cortana interface with the lock, the door opened wide and allowed them access to the Bridge at last. Through the large window at the front of the room, a wall of rock resided. It was a grim reminder of how far the _Dauntless_ had literally fallen. Within the room itself was rather spacious, filled with various computing terminals similar to that of what they had seen before. The captain's chair was at the far back, surrounded by a command console that was functional, but flickering in and out. The the aging readout screens and bits of worn ancient tech were of little consequence though, everyone's eyes were drawn to the center.

There, sitting what could be presumed to be a large deactivated holographic image display, was a glowing green hexagonal-based pyramid, pointed upward as energy surged around it. At its base was an X-shaped metallic handle of some sort and attached to that were a series of heavy duty cables and wiring spread out to various parts of the bridge. It was clear that none of this was meant to actually be on the bridge, it looked so makeshift, hastily put together from scratch. While it was unclear what all the jury-rigged electrical wiring did, it was evident to all what it was attached to.

"Is that what we're looking for?" Linda asked, pointing at the green tiny pyramid.

Tali got out her omni-tool to perform a scan, and watched as her readouts spiked into the red.

"I'm getting a massive power fluctuation output from it," she told the others. "It's practically resonating throughout the room, but seems focused through the cables."

"This is it," Taq said excitedly, resisting the urge to jump up and down. "The Relic of Power! We found it!"

Kat moved up slightly to get a better look, cocking her head slightly to the side as she did. Her eyes traced the various paths of the cables and wires attached to the relic. They were all either plugged into walls or snaked down through and into the floor and walls respectively.

"Looks like they were using it to power the ship in someway," she reasoned.

"Only one way to be sure," Linda told her, looking over to Tali. "Let's get Cortana in there and see what she can find."

Tali acknowledged with a nod and connected her omni-tool to the captain's damaged but still functional command console. The AI managed to stabilize it somewhat and began pulling up some technical readouts.

"A lot of the systems are inaccessible from here, but it looks like Kat is right," Cortana reported. "They set up a makeshift secondary power grid. Most of the ship's primary functions can subsist off of various backup power supplies, but they used the relic to set up a sub-system for their security net. I'm guessing that means our crawling friends out there."

"So it's a symbiotic relationship then?" Linda questioned. "They're protecting the very thing that's keeping them running."

"In a sense yes," Cortana confirmed. "But this was a massive undertaking from the looks of it. It would have required practically every surviving member of the crew all their time and effort to put it together. Cutting through rock, laying the cables, establishing a stable connection to the attack bots, they put all their effort into making sure we wouldn't get this close."

"Then I'm guessing we can't just pull the plug then," Kat surmised, slowly stepping back from the relic's pedestal. "They probably planned for that too."

"There is security override designed to be lethal to anyone attempting to remove the relic without disengaging certain protocols, yes," Cortana confirmed as she searched through the data. "We can't get to it until we shut the system down. Otherwise... I don't know, electrical shock, vaporization, all I'm sure of is that it's fatal."

Taq grimaced a bit at this news, crossing her arms and glaring at the relic.

"Don't be smug, Shiny," she told it snarling. "You're leaving with me whether you like it or not. Cortana, how do we disengage the system so I can grab my Mother Lode?"

"Give me a second, Taq, there's a lot here," Cortana informed the jackal, pooling over the data before her eyes. "Shutting all this down requires the proper sequence and authorization codes. Once we input them into the corresponding terminals on the bridge, it should shut security down."

"Along with the crawlers right?" Tali asked pleadingly.

Cortana's face remained grim.

"I'm not so sure," she informed the quarian. "According to this, while the alert status will be shutdown and half the crawlers will deactivate, the other half remains active. They'll stay on high alert to remove any potential enemy combatants that remain. And they'll remain activated even after they're sure everyone is dead."

"There has to be some way to shut them off," Kat stated. "A kill switch code or failsafe guard."

"From what I'm seeing in these technical logs, you need to deactivate something called a primary control box," Cortana explained, squinting at the screen in confusion. "It's some sort of separate system they've set up autonomously to keep a portion of the robots running at all times. There isn't a precise location here, but it's somewhere in the catacombs beneath the wreck of the _Dauntless_. If we want to kill all these things, that needs to be taken out along with the main security system."

This was precisely what Tali did not want to hear. If there was just a simple kill switch as Kat had suggested, they could end this almost instantly. Instead there was another hoop to jump though, one that for all they knew no one else was aware of. With the communication channels problematic within the depths of the tunnels, there was no clear way to contact the others. No direct line to tell them what they needed to do. However, remembering what Cortana had said earlier, she soon thought of a possible way. It was a longshot, but it was better than nothing.

"Is there anyway you can hijack the security system's communication arrays?" She asked. "If it's able to send out orders to all those crawlers, then the signal has to be strong enough to remain unaffected by the tunnels. We can warn the others about what they need to do that way."

"I think I can do it," Cortana assured her. "But I'll need to send the instructions by text only. Otherwise security might intercept the transmission and block it. I'm not taking anymore chances after what happened earlier."

"That still leaves our end of the puzzle though," Taq informed the AI. "Look, if this system can only be disengaged through specific protocol, I'm betting the _Dauntless'_ captain had all those on file. Is his cabin close by?"

Cortana brought up floor plan of the command deck and traced a line from the bridge to a small room of to the right of their current position.

"If your hunch is right, we should find everything we need in the Captain's personal log," the AI informed them. "It's not connected to the bridge's network so I can't access it from here. I'm going to have to slice into it manually. I'll set up a connection with Tali's omni-tool to this terminal though, hopefully I can hack into the communication array while we're looking through the Captain's log."

"Then let's get moving," Linda ordered. "The sooner we pull the plug on this place the better off everyone will be."

* * *

Shepard let loose another shockwave attack, ripping through another group of the crawling robots. One avoided the biotic wave by jumping onto the wall. It returned fire, forcing the Commander to drop back down behind his boulder. As he reloaded his shotgun, he looked over to Varvok, blazing away with a stream of assault rifle fire. He stopped, however, when one of the energy bolts came too close for comfort. As he pulled back into cover he looked to Shepard.

"We're not getting through this way," he told him. "They're just pinning us down until more come up behind us."

"We need to double back then, take another tunnel," Shepard stated. "We'll need some cover first though."

Varvok reached into his pack and held up a smoke grenade in his hand. He started counting down with his fingers and Shepard got ready to move. Shotgun in hand, Shepard sprung up and turned just as Varvok let the smoke grenade fly. He fired off a single shot that ripped apart two of the attacking machines and then took off running just as the plume of red smoke began to spray everywhere.

He and Varvok rounded the next corner as metallic screeching echoed from behind them. Shepard looked back over his shoulder briefly and in the darkness he could clearly see the glowing orange eyes of their pursuers. They had gotten up to leave just in time it seemed, as there were tons of the aggressive little metal monsters now chasing after them. Shepard sent rippling shockwaves at them, hurling them back and into each other. He added a few shotgun bursts, but it did little to deter the wave.

The momentary slow he caused, however, had apparently given Varvok time for his own plan. When Shepard turned back, he saw the batarian throwing a ready-made explosive charge on the wall. More specifically, one charge of three he had set up around the tunnel.

"The hell are you doing?!" Shepard shouted in shocked rage.

"Blunting the incoming tide," Varvok declared adamantly. "Just get ready to run."

Varvok was already readying the trigger switch in his hand. With the machines closing, he had no more time to argue, so he just kept running. They got barely two feet away before Varvok pressed the switch and detonated the charges. The explosion rocked the tunnel, it was only pure adrenaline that kept either of them on their feet. The shaking rumble soon gave way to the sound of rocks crumbling and crashing down around. They could hear the smashing metal against the now collapsing ceiling and feel the plume of dust catching up to them. Shepard could barely keep ahead of the falling debris he could feel crashing just behind them.

With one final effort, Shepard dove ahead, tackling into Varvok's back as the last bit of the tunnel fell away. It took a moment for the dust to clear, when it did, they saw a large wall of rocks blocking the path they had just come from. The machines were no doubt buried beneath a lot of it. Shepard forced himself to his feet as Varvok stood up, seemingly satisfied with the results. A feeling Shepard did not share in the slightest.

"What in the hell was that?" He screamed at the batarian. "Are you completely insane or just stupid?"

"I just saved both our lives," Varvok countered. "Those little monsters would've completely overrun us if I hadn't done something drastic."

"You used three explosive charges!" Shepard furiously reminded him. "One would have been more than enough to rip their ranks apart and given us a chance get away! Instead you collapsed the whole tunnel! The same tunnel we were in!"

"We made it out, didn't we?" Varvok questioned. "We're alive."

"Barely," Shepard stated angrily. "You can't just go throwing charges on walls like that, you could've shaken this whole section apart, not just one tunnel. We could've been trapped or crushed because you hit a very important support wall or whatever."

"I didn't exactly have time to do a full scan of the structural integrity of the stupid catacomb, thank you very much," Varvok argued. "We needed to cut those bastards off, not just blow a few up and hope we outran them. I took the initiative and saved our lives."

"You decided to act on your own again without consulting me and almost got us killed," Shepard said pointing at his chest. "We could've come up with a plan together."

Varvok knocked his away hand in disgust.

"I didn't discuss my plan because I knew we'd get into this nonsense again," Varvok snarled. "I knew you'd waste time or only go for the one charge. We needed to cut off their pursuit route, not mildly inconvenience them by damaging their numbers. Now we're wasting time arguing about what's already been done, so I suggest we get moving before the advantage I provided us is squandered further."

Varvok marched down one path up ahead, with a fuming Shepard following at a distance. He tried to hold his tongue, suppress his feelings, but it was a struggle. Varvok was pulling at his last nerve and he wasn't sure how long he could take the batarian's utter disdain for him.

More importantly, he was wondering if **he** could survive it for much longer.

* * *

It had become rather clear to them that they had been dropped in what seemed to be killbot central, or at least that was how Zek put it. Kowalski found it hard to argue with that point, given how they had only avoided the numerous scampering death squads scurrying around by the skin of their teeth. Or beak in Zek's case, he supposed.

Every other tunnel seemed packed with a roving group or two, moving out into the other tunnels beyond. With no cloaking tech on them, the best they could hope for was that the shadows would conceal them and the robots would just pass them by. That meant a lot of stopping, staying quiet and then running as fast as possible when one group had moved on. It wasn't easy going for the Marine, Kowalski was the least used to sneaking around compared to Samara and Zek. Stealth wasn't usually the operative word for the average devil dog.

He wasn't the only one having a tough time with all this though, Zek wasn't happy about this either. When the latest scampering group passed them by, he voiced his concerns aloud.

"There's more of them the further we go down these tunnels," he told Samara. "You're practically leading us into their nest."

"Given their synthetic nature, that is probably an inaccurate term," Samara suggested plainly. "It is more like a central power node or some other mechanical device."

"Whatever," Zek snarled. "Point is you're leading us to a foreboding agonizing death. Do you have any idea how many of those crazy robots are probably waiting there for us?"

"Would you prefer we follow the machines currently spreading out into the catacombs at large?" The Asari asked. "There is no safe place within this underground, not as long as these machines remain active. Knowing Sergeant Johnson and Lieutenant McKay, they likely know this as well. Their best course of action in this scenario is to locate the source of the enemy and eradicate it. If we follow where these crawling machines are coming from, we shall more than likely run across our companions."

Zek snorted in derision at the explanation.

"More likely you just have a death wish and you're dragging me along for the ride," he growled. "Just be honest here, you want to kill you some robots cause you got this crazy obsession with crushing things you don't like with your mind."

"I am not dragging you anywhere," Samara reminded him. "If it were up to me, I'd let you wander off and get yourself killed. However, as Private Kowalski pointed out before, we cannot be down a gun in our predicament. And honestly, I doubt you actually want to take the risk of trying to get back to the surface alone."

Zek just glared at the blue alien, a low growl rising under his throat.

"Well," the asari pushed further. "Tell me I'm wrong, pirate."

Zek just let loose a snort and continued following. It was under protest obviously, but he couldn't deny he had no choice in this matter. Kowalski could see a rare bit of smug satisfaction on the usually reserved asari's face. It was a bit strange to see her take pleasure in shutting down the Pirate Leader's arguments, but the Private could clearly see that it was starting to work on Zek's nerves.

"I know you don't like him," he whispered to her. "But maybe you shouldn't keep prodding him."

"Perhaps he should stop complaining in general," Samara answered rather bluntly. "Despite my feelings about him, I am keeping him alive to the best of my abilities. Make no mistake, Private Kowalski, were this situation reversed in some manner, and he had more authority, he would abandon us both. It is simply in his kind's nature."

"I can still hear you both you know," Zek called back. "Whispering in a tunnel is kinda impossible."

"I am merely speaking the truth of the situation," Samara informed him harshly. "I see no reason to hide it from anyone."

Zek turned about and looked to Samara with a glare.

"Is this how it's going to be until you get us all killed?" He asked snarling. "Just you telling me how much you loathe my guts because I'm a crook? Just waiting for the excuse you need to snap my neck or something cause I'm such a horrible, terrible, wretched creature?"

"I have found it far easier to hold my tongue with others in similar vocations as yours," Samara said rather plainly. "All of them were quick to prove they were more than what they appeared. While my Code still compels me to eventually see justice done, I feel regret over that reality. You, however, have proved nothing more than opportunist since Commander Shepard met you. You are the embodiment of what the Justicars stand against and I have no desire to be more accommodating while I suffer your presence."

Samara moved ahead once again, walking past Zek as he glared at her. Whatever fears he once had about her before seemed gone in the moment. He now seemed more focused on firing back at the asari, rather than quivering behind Kowalski in terror. He kept a steady pace behind her as they walked, looking up at the back of her head.

"This little black and white view of things you got is hardly fair," he stated firmly. "I guess it's easy for you to be all high and mighty about morality and shit being who you are. I can tell, your regal posturing and thesaurus ready vocabulary, you were born in comfort. You never had to worry about frickin starving or about getting your throat cut by some fucker with a grudge. You think I just woke up one day and decided I wanted to rob and steal other people's stuff? No, I fell into it cause it was the only way I could survive the day to day."

"I am more than aware of the difficulties that lead people into crime," Samara assured him. "But an unjust act remains unjust, regardless of motivating factors. And piracy is a career built upon various unjust acts."

"Not every pirate is the same," Zek stated firmly. "I, for one, rarely found the need to murder anyone. I attacked a civilian ship, I took their cargo, most of the time no one even got hurt. It was only when some gun-happy mercenary decided to make it an issue and play hero that anything ever got messy."

"You can soften it all you want, but it changes nothing," Samara sternly countered. "You took what was not yours and killed in the pursuit of it. Stealing and murder are both unjust, it doesn't matter if you tried to mitigate it."

The Jackal suddenly stopped in his tracks, crossed his arms and glared smugly at the back of her head. A thought has occurred to him just then. Kowalski could see it in the bird expression readily.

"I bet you wouldn't care if I spent most of my time attacking the Covenant," Zek suggested. "If the only people I killed were folks you hated, you'd be cool with me. If I targeted them specifically, we'd have no problem."

"Make your point," Samara said groaning.

"I mean, you really think all these Marines and humans have never done something wrong?" Zek asked. "For all you know a few of them were forced to enlist to get out of a prison sentence. But because they're fighting the Covenant, they get a free pass, huh? No sense getting on their case with them helping you wipe them out I suppose."

"If I knew any who specifically committed murder, I would feel the same sense of disdain for them," Samara admitted. "They, however, hide their crimes. They at least feel a sense of shame, you do not."

"Why should I be ashamed of what I am?" Zek asked, his voice indignant. "I'm free, lady. Free to live my life without restriction, without anyone over me. If that means I gotta get violent at times, so be it. All I want is the ability to make my own way in the galaxy. I live by the Code I forged for myself, not some crazy super space cop religion or whatever it is you follow."

Samara glare turned from disdain to right out anger, she started approaching the Jackal with an aggressive stride. Zek stood his ground though, he didn't even for for his gun. Kowalski quickly moved between the two to calm them down.

"Alright, okay, you both don't like each other, fine," he said, holding up his hands. "Can we leave this debate alone for now until we're out of these tunnels."

"I will if she stops giving me guff over everything," Zek assured.

"If he stops questioning my motives and resolve, so will I," Samara added.

Before the two could come to an agreement though, there was a screeching sound down their tunnel path. Crawlers were coming. Kowalski looked about for a place to hide and spotted a small alcove. He led Samara into it, Zek following close behind. The three managed to squeeze themselves inside, just barely. There they stood, while the group of killer robots scampered by them. Their glowing yellow eyes lit up the darkened tunnel, singularly focused on what was ahead. They could hear the many metal claws clanking against the rock as they ran by the alcove, completely unaware of their presence. Eventually the lights and sounds faded, as they always did before, signaling they had moved on.

For a minute they seemed in the clear, until one straggler stopped a few inches away from them. It did not move, it did not follow the rest of its kind. Instead, it began to swivel its' head about, searching for something. There was little guess among the trio what exactly it was looking about for. Kowalski noticed it seemed interested in the ground near where they had been standing moments before.

Samara almost readied her biotics, but Kowalski grabbed her by the arm. He shook his head and she understood his meaning, they others would likely hear her attack. Thankfully they had other options, as Zek pulled out the hilt of his currently deactivated plasma machete. The crawler itself began to circle about, edging towards the alcove proper, the sound of metallic claws edging closer to them,

Without hesitation, Zek acted quickly. As soon as the freakish metal monstrosity for close, the Jackal activated his blade and slashed it down onto the robot's head. The lights in the machine's eyes flickered and then died suddenly. The killbot dropped to his stomach, feet sprawled out along the ground. Zek pulled the plasma machete out and smashed the head in with his foot for good measure. The trio slowly clambered out of the alcove one by one.

"Okay, we've stayed in one place way too long," Kowalski informed them. "We gotta get moving."

"You still wanna go towards these things, human?" Zek asked. "This just proves it's going to get harder to hide from them the further in we go."

"But the last place I think they'd bother looking for us, is so close to their home," Kowalski suggested. "Now, I know Sam is being hard on you, but you gotta admit she had a point there. It's either go where they're all coming from, or follow them into the maze. Both options suck, but if I know Marines, they'll head to where the action is rather than wait for it to come to them."

Zek sighed softly at the argument.

"I can at least trust you humans would be that stupid," he admitted. "Fine, let's keep going then."

Zek started walking again as Kowalski looked to Sam.

"You can make anyone act against their nature if you give them the chance," he told her simply. "Sometimes it just takes more carrot than stick."

"Wise sentiments, Private Kowalski," Samara concurred. "But while I will admit that is often true, it changes nothing about the person in question."

Samara pressed on and now Kowalski shrugged in defeat. He knew it wasn't really his job to help these two find common ground, but it would've been nice to make some progress. At least they weren't arguing anymore, better than nothing he thought.

* * *

Kaz kept on point as their little band made their way through the dark. The tunnels were a bit more cramped with the extra squads of Jackals and Batarians, but McKay didn't really care. So long as the EFD helped them avoid any major skirmishes as they moved through the tunnels, she was okay with the extra baggage. Besides, they'd need everyone they could get if they were going to reach that possible origin point and shut these things down.

They still encountered some of the smaller patrol squads, but were able to avoid the larger contingents entirely. When they came upon three of the metal menaces scampering around, they were quick to silence. Jackals with energy shields blocked the incoming fire and used their plasma pistols to destroy them relatively quick. That did impress some urgency on McKay though.

"Keep moving," she ordered down the line. "If they heard the shooting they'll be here before you know it."

They picked up the pace, the batarians themselves pushing themselves up through the line more than most. Not always with the most grace or courteousness, pushing past ODSTs and not bothering to even give them a second glance. McKay noticed this and looked over to Revtok.

"They are not making this easier," she told him. "Could you please tell them to keep formation?"

Revtok growled a bit under his throat. McKay pressed on him by keeping her gaze affixed, eventually forcing his hand. He looked back to his men.

"Maintain unit formation," he ordered down the line. "We'll all get our chance eventually, no need to rush."

He clearly didn't like telling his people to play nice with the humans, but at least he was smart enough to know this wasn't the time or place for sowing discontent among their combined forces. The Jackals were strangely enough far more well behaved in contrast, although McKay imagined it was more because most of them were in no real hurry to throw themselves at the enemy. At least they kept pace, even if they held back further down the line.

At that moment, Kaz stopped in his tracks, his eyes still glued to his device's screen. As he tilted his head and tried to make sense of whatever it was he was looking at, McKay got behind him. She could clearly see their eventual objective, but there was a steadily growing patch of orange in one of the larger caverns ahead. A patch that was growing more steadily by the second in fact, as if it was being reinforced.

"Looks like they're amassing there," McKay deduced.

"Yeah, it just ballooned up over time," Kaz said. "We can go around it though. There's some tunnels that just avoid this cavern altogether. Straight shot to-"

"No," McKay said. "Those Crawlies are reinforcing that area for a reason."

McKay took a moment to walk up just a little more ahead, it only took that much to hear what was happening close by. The faint echo of gunfire was clearly resonating throughout the cavern.

"Marines," she said, heading back. "I can hear them engaging the machines. That's where they are."

"Then they are drawing away the enemy," Revtok presumed. "We can use this to our advantage and assault the origin point directly."

"Not an option," McKay told him. "They're in trouble and they need our help. We're going to flank those machines together and save them. Then we attack the origin point together."

"It would be more strategically prudent to continue," Revtok claimed. "They will be more focused on the Marines than on us."

"Would you be saying the same thing if they were batarians?" McKay asked bluntly.

Revtok growled slightly, but it eventually subsided.

"This is a mistake," he claimed. "But I won't go on alone and you will most certainly won't follow if I do. So, how do we save your fellow humans?"

"Like Kaz pointed out, there are other tunnels leading into and around the cavern," McKay explained. "We coordinate our strikes we can hit them from all sides before they even know we're there."

"Well, okay, that could work," Kaz admitted, pointing at the screen. "If we go on this left passage, me and the other kig-yar might have some elevation on them. Revtok's batarians could actually get behind them through here and you humans can take the right. But I'm just going to say I'd really prefer to walk around. I's why I fixed this thing in the first place. Fewer killbots, all I'm saying."

"Duly noted," McKay responded. "Please inform your men of the plan."

Kaz sighed and walked back to talk with his fellow pirates, probably regretting he had suggested the possible strategy like a blabbermouth. Revtok just nodded in accordance and reported to his men. That left McKay to do the same with her group.

"Alright, sounds like a doable plan," Jack admitted once McKay was done explaining. "You think Johnson's leading those Marines?"

"We can hope," McKay answered. "We could use him assaulting that origin point."

"If the good Sergeant isn't already trying to do just that," Buck presumed. "I mean, he seems headed in the same direction."

"All the more reason to link up with his unit," Thane concurred. "Our numbers must be a match for our foes if this energy source for the machines is as well defended as we believe."

"And no one else here is concerned with the fact the plan hinges on us relying on the fucking birds and four-eyed assholes?" Lendon asked with a snarl. "We should just split up the unit and do this ourselves."

McKay did her best not to sigh in indignation, of course Lendon would have a problem, he always had a problem with everything. Well she wasn't about to let him stir up trouble, not now.

"We don't have the numbers to divide our forces like that," McKay told him sternly. "We work together or we die apart, period. We're not wasting time bickering about this, we're going with the current plan."

"You're asking us to trust Jackals to follow through on this," Lendon retorted. "That's not a plan, that's just plain stupidity."

"I'm asking you to follow orders, I don't care if you don't trust anyone," McKay corrected him. "If you can't accept we're working with the damn birds, sit here in the dark and complain alone. Otherwise, do as you're told, Sergeant."

Lendon kept scowling, but he didn't continue bickering. McKay counted that as a win and called for the ODSTs to move out. They headed down their designated tunnel, the sounds of gunfire becoming louder as they moved forward. McKay stood on point, doing her best to not make too much noise. They didn't want to alert the machines to their movements after all. Before long the echoing became almost deafening and they came upon the exit of the tunnel into the wider cavern.

As expected, a battle was already underway and looked to have been for some time. Numerous crawling robots were scampering up the side of a steep slope, as Marines up top in some rocks tried to hold them back. They may have had the high ground, but the machines had the numerical advantage and just seemed to be replacing lost units faster than the Marines could take them out. They'd be pushed back or overrun eventually.

McKay acted quickly, signaling the squads under her command to move out into cover. There were some more rocks nearby they could hide behind while they waited to make their move. They were right on their flank and the machines weren't bothering with much cover themselves. As she moved behind a small stalagmite, she watched the other entrances for signs of the batarians or the Jackals, her finger waiting impatiently on the trigger. She was happy Lendon wasn't nearby, she imagined he was probably preparing to say "I told you so" if things went south.

If she was being honest, she had similar nagging concerns at the back of her mind. That Revtok would change his mind, that Kaz would get cold feet. There wasn't the same kind of trust there. She was going on practicality, that no matter their misgivings, both groups would follow through. Neither of them would want to walk around these tunnels with the robots around making things difficult. They weren't in any position to honestly try to escape or complete the mission on their own. So she wasn't putting trust in them, so much as she was putting trust in their ability to realize they needed each other right now. That, and maybe, if they saved more humans, that meant they'd all be less likely to get shot themselves. Not exactly the noblest of reasons to stick with your team, but it would probably be the one that won out.

Sure enough, she spotted something moving in the shadows of the left tunnel exit. It was a little bit higher up the slope, but she could clearly see the Jackals moving out into cover. She looked back down and spotted the batarians at the very base of the slope, setting their sights on the Crawlers' Ranks. They had the enemy surrounded, time to engage.

She popped up from her cover and began shooting, taking aim at the heads of the two closest machines and destroying them utterly. Zaeed unleashed a torrent of disruptor rounds from his assault rifle, taking down the synthetic enemies with ease. Buck tossed a grenade into the mix, while Jack and Thane used their biotics to assault the enemy lines. Before long, every ODST was tearing into the synths with reckless abandon.

The machines began to turn some of their forces around, redirecting their attack back onto the flank they felt was in the most danger. That was when the Jackals struck. Plasma bolts and needles rained down on the crawlers, melting their metal casings as pink explosion clouds tore them to shreds. When the machines returned fire, they energy shields the Jackals carried managed to block most of their shots.

Distracted by the enemy to their front and sides, Revtok moved next. His men fired grenade launchers as an opening salvo, ripping into the lower ranks. They then rushed in outright, shotguns and rifles blaring. Ruthlessly and without mercy, they began slaughtering the machines. They stomped on their heads with their boots before unloading round after round into their metal stomachs. When some tried to leap at them, their omni-blades sliced them apart. They fired electrified netting at the machines, trapping whole groups for other batarians to blow apart.

McKay kept up her attack, but watched Revtok's men work all the same. There was a precision to their actions, even through all the chaos. It was up close, dirty and unrelenting. They didn't give the cralwers a chance to even breathe. It felt like they had done this before. Knowing what batarians were from the logs Shepard had given them, she imagined they had and it had not been against creepy little robots who shot lasers out of their mouths. But she pushed the thought aside, this time it was being used against a shared adversary and it was working. No sense in complaining about it now.

Before long, the mass of crawlers was routed. More reinforcements tried to push up, but Revtok quickly established a defensive line at the base of the slope. With added Jackal and ODST forces, they were able to hold. McKay chose to link up with the Marines at the top first and get a handle on their situation. There she found, who else, Sergeant Avery Johnson, no worse for wear and seemingly in his element.

"Lieutenant," he greeted with a casual salute. "Good to see you're kicking. Thanks for the assist. Weren't sure if we were going to break through anytime soon."

"Just glad we found you, Sergeant," she assured him. "What's your ammo and casualties count?"

"We've patched up some of our wounded and we still got enough bullets between us," he answered. "We figured out where all these bastards seemed to be coming from and tried to track down where their little hideout was. Guess they figured out we was coming and tried to stop us from reaching home."

"Well you were at least headed in the right direction," McKay told him. "One of our Jackal friends has picked up an energy spike and we think it might be their power source or some kind of computing hub. Whatever it is, it's likely where a lot of these bastards are coming from. If we take it out, we might at the very least slow them down a little."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Buck approach her, his omni-tool activated.

"I just got a ping on the open channel from an unknown signal, but I think it's from Cortana," he explained. "I can't really reply, but it seems like she knows about what we're looking for and that we need to destroy it alongside them shutting the security system down."

"Then the sooner we get moving the better," McKay stated. "Let's gather up everyone and start making a push, before more of those things move in and regain the momentum."

"Fine by me," Johnson declared, loading up his shotgun. "Time to shut these bastards down for good!"

"The sooner the better," McKay concurred. "I just hope anyone else out there got the message. If what just happened is proof of anything, it's that we'll probably need every hand on deck to pull this off."

* * *

It didn't take much analysis to realize that this cave hadn't collapsed naturally. There was just far too much debris and there was reason to assume it just given way. No, someone had blown it up and since this had been the most likely place Shepard had come through it stood to reason he or his traveling companion were the cause. For Chief though, this meant the tracks had been lost. They could double back and find where this collapse ended and start again, but that would take too much time

"Legion," he said, looking over to the machine. "Where exactly are we right now?"

The Geth was already looking at the map anyway, so it was quick to provide an answer.

"We are approaching the larger chasm separating the two sections of the _Dauntless_ ," it answered. "It is likely Shepard-Commander is trying to make his way towards the Bridge section as close as he is able to."

It made sense, it was probably his best real chance at getting out of this and back to the others. While he was close though, so were the machines. Just avoiding the patrols had become a chore now. The last few appeared to have been circling the section of the tunnels they were currently in. It was difficult to say, but it felt like a typical sweep pattern. The crawling killbots had an idea of where Shepard was headed to it seemed, which was not good for the Commander.

However, perhaps they could use that same tactic to locate Shepard first.

"What's the quickest route from this tunnel to that chasm?" Chief asked.

"It would take them through an open cavern approximately a kilometer north," Legion calculated. "I have already devised our shortest route to the same location."

That was all Legion could get out before a metallic snarl filled the tunnel. Legion turned quickly, weapon already out. It fired a successive bust of rounds at charging crawler as it prepared to fire its weapon. Unfortunately, even as the machine died, its friends filled the void it had left. Dozens of the little killer machines, clambering on the walls and ceiling of the enclosed tunnel rushed at them. Chief unloaded his own assault rifle into the mess of enemies, but only for a moment.

"Move! Now!"

Legion was already moving, using a combat drone in an attempt to slow their attackers down. Chief fired one last burst before taking off himself. They followed along the pathway Legion had designated, but they soon found that their assailants weren't only behind them. A metallic claw lashed out at the Master Chief, almost slashing through his visor. The Spartan grabbed the arm and slammed the robot down hard on the ground.

Of course, that was just one, he soon looked up to see about five more firing at them from up ahead. His shields blocked some of the attacks, but he was forced to hug the wall tightly.

"Guess they're not just encircling Shepard," he reasoned aloud.

"Affirmative," Legion concurred. "Activating defensive protocols."

Legion boosted its shields as it rushed out into the open, firing a blaze of shots at the enemy positions. Chief backed him up with additional fire, advancing close behind him. Together they killed at least two of the machines and then turned a corner to avoid the rest. Another of the little synthetic monsters smashed out of a wall and started charging its gun, but Chief quickly raked the wall with fire, taking the menace out.

Behind them still was a small squad of the robots, quickly gaining ground and firing on them, With few options, Chief grabbed for the gun he had pulled out from the head of one of these things before. Pulling and holding the trigger he charged up the shot, expecting it to be like a plasma pistol. Instead, the barrel seemed to spread itself wide and resonate with orange energy. He had no time to figure out why, so he just released the trigger. The wide shot that resulted eliminated the pursuing machines with a single burst, striking them all in the head and deactivating them with ease. Chief marveled at the weapon for a moment.

"What do you know, it was handy," he thought aloud.

The discovery would have to wait though, they needed to catch up to Shepard now before he was surrounded by these things. As he raced back up behind Legion though, he got an incoming message on his omni-tool... from Cortana.

* * *

They moved into the cavern with weapons held high, ready for anything. They had been trying to outpace various patrolling robot squads forever at this point. The constant echoes, the screeching, the scampering of metal claws, it was all becoming incessant. Shepard took comfort in the fact they were almost out, they were almost to the open chasm in the middle of this damn catacomb.

The cavern itself was of medium size more or less, with high walls, slopes, big rocks, lots of dark corners and stony pillars. Not that it mattered to take in the surroundings, they wouldn't be staying long. Just a little further and they'd have a straight shot for the Bridge, practically home free as far as he was concerned. As he checked one last time to see if there was anyone waiting to pounce he turned to Varvok.

"I think we managed to pull away from them," he said.

"More likely they're waiting to gun us down as soon as we head out into the open," Varvok argued. "They've been hounding us since the start of all this, you really think they've lost the scent?"

"We're this close," Shepard countered. "There's no point in backing out now."

"You're walking us into a trap," the batarian growled back. "They're all around us at this point, don't deny it. We have a better shot at this point standing our damn ground. This cavern is plenty defensible, we can probably hold out within those stalagmites over there, next to the boulder."

Shepard couldn't believe it, he was planning a last stand now? Even admitting that there were probably a ton of enemies surrounding them, he wanted to just stick it out and see how long they remained king of the hill? He could not be serious. Then again, given everything he knew about Varvok, it was hardly a surprise.

"I get you might think us going on is a bad idea, but what you're proposing isn't much better," Shepard stated firmly to the batarian. "There is only two of us, we're going to get overrun easy if we just wait for them here."

"Not if we plan accordingly," Varvok countered vehemently. "They want to trap us so bad, let them. We'll show them how much of a mistake that was."

"How? You lure them in and blow up the cave while we're still inside?" Shepard asked sardonically. "That worked out so well last time after all."

"It worked, that should be all that matters to you," Varvok shot back. "Instead you keep acting like I don't know what I'm doing."

"I don't think you're incompetent, Varvok," Shepard responded sternly. "I know you're a capable officer, I've never pretended you aren't. All I want is for you to listen to me for once and bother to talk these things things through."

"So you can scrutinize every strategy and correct me constantly or simply block me at every turn?" Varvok asked, grunting in disapproval as he did. "I don't think so. I'm not one of your lackeys, Shepard. You can't just boss me around like you own me."

"That's funny coming from a batarian," Shepard smirked derisively. "I don't own anyone, for your information. My crew are a team, period. That is what we should be."

Varvok scoffed and turned away from the Commander.

"Typical human holier than thou garbage," he grumbled loudly. "Looking down on anyone who doesn't submit to their little inclusive coalition of goodwill."

"You see, that's the problem here," Shepard shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You still can't get over the fact you're working with humans. If I was a batarian, you wouldn't be giving me all this guff of yours, but I'm not. I'm a filthy abolitionist, democratic, freedom loving human and you hate me for it. You've made that clear ever since we first met."

Varvok reeled around back at the Commander almost instantly.

"My problem isn't that you're human, Shepard," he shouted. "My problem is you, just you. It may have been my idea to reach out to you, but it sickened me to do it. The only reason I did was because I had to. Because if I didn't, my men would've died! The fact I had to ally with the so-called hero of the Skyllian Blitz enrages me. I admit it, are you happy now, you sanctimonious jackass?"

Shepard groaned, he should've known this was about to come up.

"It always goes back to Elysium with you, doesn't it?" Shepard snarled back. "What would you have preferred, Varvok? Should I have just NOT defended the civilians your people were trying to either enslave or murder? Maybe I should've just let you ransack a whole planet because of your petty little grievances. Is that what you think I should've done? Because if the situation was reversed, and my people were attacking one of your civilian colonies, I doubt you would've have done anything different."

"Elysium wouldn't have been necessary at all if you bastards had just stayed in your own systems," Varvok answered venomously. "You kept steamrolling over worlds we deserved and used your Council muscle to keep them. The Traverse was supposed to be ours and you stole it from us. Stole resources that could've fed our Empire's needs for centuries to come."

"Maybe if you had bothered to play nice with the Council before, they would've listened to you," Shepard informed him plainly. "You squandered any goodwill you had when you annexed, bombed and repeatedly attacked Council Forces and worlds without provocation. All we ever did was expand a little faster than you liked and that somehow justifies murdering civilians. Come off it, Varvok. You don't have the moral high ground here, your people never did."

Clearly incensed, the batarian approached Shepard aggressively, but the Commander did not move an inch. Even as Varvok got right in his face.

"We deserved better," he snarled. "We still do. The Council gave you the Traverse to spite us. Simple as that. Did you really expect us to just roll over and take it? We had to fight, we had to make a stand. If you didn't want your civilians put in harm's way then you shouldn't have put them in our way."

"Believe whatever you want," Shepard told him, already tired of the whole affair. "Right now we're a whole universe away from all that. Leave the baggage there and let's actually try to tolerate each other instead. Bickering like this gets us nowhere."

Shepard pushed past him, but Varvok didn't let up, shouting at him as he walked away.

"No! You brought this up, Shepard," he bellowed. "So I might as well finish it! You think you know everything about us batarians? That we're all just sore losers over the Blitz? Well news flash, that's only the tip of the iceberg! I could handle you beating us, but the aftermath was unforgivable!"

Shepard knew what Varok was referring to instantly and it stopped him in his tracks. He looked back, slightly more solemn than before.

"I wasn't at Torfan," Shepard reminded him. "I've never even visited the place."

"But your victory in the Skyllian Blitz directly resulted in the retaliatory strike there," Varvok argued. "Our defeat emboldened you to pursue and fulfill your revenge! A revenge that was paid for with the lives of my brothers!"

Now they were getting to the heart of it. Shepard had heard rumors about this story, but he never brought it up. Varok had family on Torfan, a criminal infested moon in the Traverse. It was like the Hollow, a lot of the operations were underground. Slavers, pirates, murderers, crooks of all the worst kids and most of them were batarian. That was Torfan, a cesspool of villainy in every sense of the word. Then the Alliance arrived and showed no mercy. Shepard probably would've gone if he hadn't still been on the press tour, the poster man for the ideal Alliance Marine, the Hero of Elysium. Torfan though was not nearly as glorious a victory.

As he understood it, the idea that everyone there was the worst kind of scum appealed to a lot of Marines and the Commanders in charge. With cries of "Remember Elysium" and "Payback for the Blitz", the Alliance let go of their usual restraint. Kill on sight, shoot first, questions never. They tried to sell it later that it was all about justice for those who died in the Blitz, who suffered that unprovoked attack. The images spoke different. It was revenge, not justice, more a purge than a legit military operation. Stacks of dead batarians, most of them butchered beyond belief. Burnt out residences, tunnels collapsed from orbital bombardment, and scores of reports concerning executed prisoners.

Was it any wonder the Alliance tried to bury the whole operation? Alongside the massive casualties the Alliance suffered for the victory, the way they won gave many of the other races pause. Sure, their targets may have been criminals, but the whole thing reeked of overkill. Public perception was the Alliance had overstepped their bounds, massacred a whole moon out of a petty desire for vengeance. The public relations nightmare made humans look like bulldozing bullies more than ever. The only good thing to come out of it? The batarian Hegemony retreated from the Traverse, the price of their attempts at expansion laid bare.

Shepard was not about to defend Torfan, he felt they could've accomplished the same goals with far fewer deaths. The cowboy mentality that took over was pointless. None of the traits that he admired about the Alliance were present in that operation. They hadn't acted their best and it was a permanent blot on their galactic record.

"I'm sorry to hear about that," he lamented. "What happened on Torfan was senseless, but I wasn't there. I couldn't do anything to stop it."

"Spare me your false sympathies," Varvok snorted cruelly. "You don't care. Everyone on that moon was just some faceless slaving bastard to you humans. You never imagined they had families too I wager. My brothers were just trying to help the family business, but they were murdered because of what that business was. They were killed mercilessly by humans, because we believe in the importance of blood and heritage. Freedom is not meant for everyone, but because you can't accept that you persecute us. My family is one of many victims of your war on our right to own our lessers."

Shepard sighed, he was trying to be understanding, but this was getting on his nerves a bit.

"Your brothers didn't need to die," he relented. "Even if they were slavers, they deserved a fair trial first. But if you expect me to apologize for the Alliance's efforts to stop slavery, it's not happening. Imagine the pain your family felt when your brothers were taken from you? Can you even imagine what it feels like for some human kid to get ripped away from their parents? Forced to work for some stranger for next to nothing while constantly under threat of torture or death?"

"Don't compare my siblings to those of lesser blood," Varvok growled. "They weren't cruel, they weren't evil, they were good to their family, to me."

Varvok's eyes grew soft for once, his voice turning low and solemn.

"Whenever I was feeling down or lonely, whenever I felt things were working against me, I always had them to back me up," he claimed sadly, his eyes drifting off to the side. "I remember how they protected me from bullies, how they helped me with my homework, how they always bought me tickets to the vid theater and never expected me to pay them back. I knew they'd always be there for me. Until one day...when they weren't there. They were just... gone. And nothing would ever bring them back."

The sullen look in his eyes lasted a few seconds more. For once, Shepard saw Varvok vulnerable, his defenses gone. Revealed behind them was a lonely boy who lost his family, the two best friends he ever had.

And then the fire returned as soon he looked back at Shepard.

"That's because of your kind, your actions," he declared angrily. "I swore to fight against you. I swore to stop you. And now, I'm forced to help you! I'm forced to dishonor the memory of my brothers every second I'm stuck with you and your damn crew. You want to know what justifies our actions? You want to know why we've chosen this path of terrorism and violence? You forced us! You left us with no choice but to fight because it's all we have left! You stole too much from us, from me, for us to back down now!"

"So because humans hurt you, because they killed your brothers, you decided to hurt others?" Shepard shot back with a glare. "You decided to inflict that same pain that your family went through on countless human families? That's your justification for all this? For hating me?"

Whatever restraint he had before was now gone. He was not going to apologize for stopping slavers, for protecting innocent people. He was not going to claim the Alliance was somehow the bad guy in all this. Even with Torfan, even knowing Varvok's losses, that didn't change anything. He wouldn't back down, so neither would he.

"Well look where that's all gotten you, Varvok," he stated loudly, raising his hands up. "You joined up with Balak, who sold your people out to the Covenant for revenge as well. Then he kicked you ove here into this dimension! Now your people are probably going to get subjugated by a foreign power, and for what? So you could finally get back at the humans for not tolerating the enslavement of sapient beings? Hope that was worth it."

"Shut your mouth!" Varvok snapped back. "I'm trying to help you stop them now! I've given up my country, my honor, my standing, to help you!"

"You gave that all up because you learned too late what revenge costs you in return," Shepard countered, rage boiling over in his tone as well. "You felt killing humans would somehow make it better, somehow give meaning to the deaths of your brothers, but instead it destroyed your life. So now you're taking it out on me, like you apparently do with everything! Face it, Varvok, you're no better than the Marines who killed your brothers!"

That was it, he stepped over a line. He knew he had the moment the words left his mouth. He regretted, but he couldn't take them back. Shepard barely had time to react before Varvok was charging at him, fist raised. He pulled up his biotic barrier, but not in time. The hook connected with the left side of his face. He responded with his own haymaker to Varvok's face. The batarian held his jaw and went for another strike. Shepard caught it with one hand and unleashed a biotic blow at the Varvok's sternum, sending him flying back. The batarian didn't stay down, he rushed back to his feet, rage taking over now, adrenaline surging through him.

"Can't even fight me without your damn powers! Coward!"

"You don't want to do this, Varvok," Shepard warned sternly.

"No, I really do," the batarian claimed. "I really fucking do!"

Shepard dodged the next wild punch, but was forced to block the next. He let loose another punch against Varvok's temple, who responded by clasping his hands together and delivering striking the Commander's jaw. Shepard stumbled back, but maintained his footing. He thrusted a power jab into Varvok's nose in kind, but the batarian answered with a swinging body blow to Shepard stomach. Shepard had to knee him off before kicking at the batarian's leg to make him kneel. He then drove home with a strike across the batarian's upper right eye, sending him down to he ground.

He didn't stay there though, he was quick to force himself back up and charge again. This time Shepard's block didn't hold and he got hit right between the eyes. As his head was spinning, Varvok threw another punch into Shepard's jaw. That was enough to get his thoughts back in order. As the batarian attempted to deliver a double overhead strike, Shepard grabbed his arms and threw him backwards. Even falling over flat on his ass, Varvok was not giving in. He scrambled to his feet and now dared Shepard to charge at him, motioning his hands towards him and snarling.

Shepard did charge, at first because he wanted to sock the stupid batarian in his other upper eye. He was tired of this, tired of stepping around egg shells, tired of just barely tolerating Varvok's constantly belittling remarks. Then, that changed in an instant. Shepard reached for his gun and Varvok's eyes went wide. He tried to do the same, but Shepard reached him first, leveling his weapon upwards and then... throwing Varvok aside and firing at the crawler robot behind him.

The machine had been powering up its weapon and had been just about to shoot. Shepard had luckily stopped it in time. Unfortunately, while he managed to kill the Crawler, it had friends close by. A lot of friends, if the screeching was any indication.

As the bots began to swarm inside the cavern, firing sporadically at their position, Shepard rushed back over to Varvok and held out his hand. There was a moment's hesitation, and then the batarian took it. Boosted back up to his legs, Varvok grabbed for his rifle and opened fire on the advancing horde of machines, Shepard backing him up by send a shockwave rippling through their ranks.

Sustained fire from a stalactite up above forced them to retreat into the rocks, but Varvok was quick to fire his explosive omni-blades at the offending sniper. The blades dug into the rock and detonated, not only killing the robot, but sending the stalactite hurtling down on even more of the crawlers.

Together, Shepard and Varvok ran towards the rocks for cover. Shepard figured they wait for an opening and make a run for the exit. That was probably going to be a problem given how many of the little metallic freaks were suddenly in the cavern with them. Shepard let loose with his shotgun, blasting away at the charging attackers while Varvok focused on the ones firing from downrange. The batarian managed to scrap two of the machines as they tried climbing some stalagmites for a better vantage point.

Then, suddenly, a glowing grey combat drone charged onto the field. It entered the fray as a few frag grenades landed among the enemy machines. The drone self-destructed just as the grenades went off, taking a whole mess of crawlers with them. The combined explosion only blinded Shepard for a second, but he still managed to track where the grenades had arched from. There, standing close to another exit in the cave, was the Master Chief and Legion, now currently firing on the incoming machines that remained.

"Didn't think I'd leave you to face this alone, did you, sir?" Chief asked.

"I suppose I shouldn't have, Chief," Shepard said, more than a little happy to see the Spartan. "You too, Legion!"

"We are pleased you are undamaged, Shepard-Commander," Legion replied, still firing off rounds from its rifle. "We suggest an immediate exfiltration from this area regardless."

Shepard and Varvok got up from their cover and rushed over to the two, they all began to pull back into the tunnel Chief and Legion had come from. This confused Shepard a little.

"Wait, shouldn't we be heading for the Bridge?" He asked.

"I got a message from Cortana while I was searching for you," the Spartan explained. "If we want to stop these things, there's something we got to take out. She identified it for us, we'll need your help to pull it off."

Shepard didn't argue. As much as he wanted to get to the Bridge and back Tali up, it seemed that the mission needed him down here more. He was just grateful he didn't have to face it alone.

"Lead the way, we're right behind you," he told the Chief.

They raced into the tunnel, leaving the devastated mass of Crawlers behind.

* * *

Tali and Taq closed up the junction box, their work complete. Power had been restored to the Captain's Quarters, along with the personal computer within. Tali quickly uploaded Cortana onto the system and the AI set to work. The encryption here was greater than anticipated, but at this point Cortana had become familiar enough with all the _Dauntless'_ systems and codes that it wasn't too difficult to crack. In fact, the greater problem seemed to be sorting through all the data not pertinent to what they wanted to find.

"Come on, come on," Cortana grumbled. "Where'd you keep all your passwords, pal? Seriously, this is getting annoying."

"Check any of the later personal logs and run them through translation," Tali suggested. "Maybe we can find a clue in there."

"Way ahead of you," Cortana assured. "I'm already finishing up with his log entries now, but they're incredibly detailed. Guess he had a lot of time to write. I'll put it up for you."

The screen filled with several files, some including diagrams or technical specs. Some of them were easily recognizable, specifically the one detailing the crawler robots. Tali took special interest in that one, looking at its construction and variants. There were apparently more than a few available, designed for different tasks. It seemed the one that they had encountered the most was designed basic pathfinding and threat location. Lucky for them, since it was only armed with a basic energy weapon. Powerful, but not devastating. Tali searched for something that would tell them how they were making so many, but Taq interrupted her search.

"Get a load of this," she said, enlarging a file for the others to see. "It's an after action report of some kind, looks like it details the cause of the crash."

"From what Johnson's team reported, the engine room looked like it had been sabotaged," Kat reminded her.

"It was," Taq confirmed. "But not by a bomb or a treacherous crewmate. According to this... it was those crawling synthetics."

That was bizarre, considering how diligently they had been protecting this wreck. Taq quickly filled in the blanks as she read further.

"Apparently these things were loaded onto the ship without the crew's knowledge and set to be activated in the middle of their voyage," Taq explained. "They're some kind of advanced synthetic warrior the Forerunners created to fend off extreme threats. The Captain had his suspicions that it was an agent of a disgraced leader of theirs. Their mission was to prevent this guy from getting his hands on the relic, they couldn't risk him getting its power because of what he could potentially do with it."

"So one of his allies got wind of this plan and managed to sneak some of these crawlers aboard the _Dauntless_ to prevent them from escaping with their master's prize," Linda observed. "The robots activated and they took the engine room apart before anyone could stop them. Then the ship crashes."

"The survivors managed to deactivate the remaining bots, but their problems didn't end there," Taq continued. "They knew Halo was going to be activated soon it seems so they knew they weren't getting rescued. They had to rush preparations to secure the relic, keep it out of enemy hands. So that's where all those security measures and other crap we've run into so far all came from. It was their attempt to ensure no one would even get to the relic."

That answered some questions, but not all. It made sense now that the survivors had designed the ship to defend the relic long after they were all dead. The ship's security was tied into its ability to shift forms, the relic was keeping everything powered and directed properly, all the failsafes they had run into to further increase the odds against intruders, that all made sense. The crawlers didn't though. If they had been designed to assault the ship, how had the survivors managed to capture and reprogram so many of them? Had there been that many just to attack the ship's engine room in the first place?

Tali accessed the terminal herself with her omni-tool and started looking over the files herself. She paid attention to any that seemed to talk about the Crawlers in some way. There was a lot of research about them actually, more than she expected. It was rushed, messy, not always coherent, but some answers began to form. None of them good.

"Guys, you should listen to this," she said, catching the others' attention. "There's a lot more in here about their security measures. Specifically how they hunted down and destroyed all the original machines. Then they repurposed the parts to create more."

"They could do that?" Kat asked, curiously. "Just destroy all of them and build new ones out of the wrecks? It's that easy?"

"Not exactly," Tali answered. "When they destroyed the bots, they killed the AI inside with it. They couldn't function without a body. They got around that like how the Geth do, they created a hub where the AI could retreat to if a body was ever destroyed."

"A hub?" Linda asked. "Like a server?"

"Yes, and according to this, it's localized in a special device they fit it with," Tali continued. "This what all that research into those design seeds was about. They created one from scratch to build it along with the server. This machine takes in matter, reconfigures it at the subatomic level and creates more of the Crawlers based on schematics they downloaded into it. To simplify, a matter converter engine. They also programmed a command into the robots that were online to collect any matter they find and feed it into the converter. Rocks, metals, basically everything down here."

Linda was probably not the most tech savy among the group, but she quickly picked up on what Tali was saying.

"That's the thing that's spewing out all these bots," she deduced. "The secondary system we learned about. The one that we need to destroy so we can shut all these machines down."

"Looks like it," Tali confirmed.

"Well where did they get the new AI?" Taq asked. "There's no way a single synth can control all these machines at once. It would be too much to handle, even for a Forerunner program. Did they have like a dozen spares?"

"According to the logs that was precisely the problem they had to solve," Tali answered dutifully, reading at a mile a minute. "They didn't have a monitor that that could oversee everything. The Crawlers would only respond to direct input, that's apparently how they had been designed. They... well..."

She stopped just short of the full truth. It was hard to express, hard to fully process. She could see they were all eagerly waiting though. Instead of just saying it out loud, she enlarged the image on her omni-tool so they could all see it. The familiar image of the strange pods they had found not long ago filled the room. Before they could properly ask what this was about, Tali filled them in.

"Remember how AIs are made on Earth?" She asked them. "By digitizing brainwaves and such?"

"Yes, or cloned brain matter like me," Cortana reasoned, then her face faulted. She came to the conclusion first. "Oh God, are you...?"

Tali could see the AI looking over the information herself and the expression of shock growing across her face as the realization hit.

"They digitized themselves," the AI blurted out. "They digitized themselves while they were still alive."

"You mean their brains?" Linda asked, equally shocked. "Like what Halsey did to make you?"

"No, not their brains, themselves, as in every piece," Cortana clarified frantically. "They broke down every bit of their genetic code and fed it into the hub to create enough basic AI programs to fill the quota they needed. The hub then split those AI into more AI, fragmenting them, copying them, anything and everything to give them enough bots to maintain their security grid."

"We've been fighting the crew," Kat simplified for everyone. "This whole time, we've been fighting the crew."

That summed it up pretty well. To Tali it was almost unimaginable, abandoning everything you were to become data. She had heard of the concept, of transcending matter and becoming digital information. It was a nightmare quarians always spoke about, the ultimate surrender to the machine, organics choosing to become synthetic. In light of the situation, Tali supposed she understood it, but it still rubbed her all kinds of wrong.

"The Captain was the last one to undergo the process it seems," Tali told them. "The last one to become... well, one of these Crawlers himself. His last entry is basically a final checklist, a few remaining things he needed to do to ensure everything would keep running after he was gone."

"I've heard of fanatical dedication to your mission, but this is a whole other level," Linda stated. "It more or less confirms this relic must be dangerous if they were willing to do all this just to keep it safe."

"Or that the guy they were afraid was gonna grab it really was a nasty piece of work," Taq suggested. "Either way, I hope none of you are getting cold feet here. We're not getting out of here alive unless we shut them all down, so we might as well take the relic with us."

"Relax, Taq," Linda assured her. "We're not backing down, but it is something to consider going forward. The Covenant and Snarlbeak want this thing. If the Forerunners were afraid of it falling into enemy hands so much that they went to such extreme lengths to protect it, that tells us we need to take similar precautions as well."

"I'm not turning myself into data," Kat spoke up. "I'm just saying that right now."

"And on that note, I have the passcodes," Cortana announced. "Buried deep in the captain's logs, but I have them."

Everyone gathered around the main terminal again as Cortana brought the codes up, a mixture of symbols and signs designated by color. They were good to go it seemed, but as Tali suspected, Cortana had found a catch.

"I know the procedure," she assured them. "I can get it done easily. Problem, there's some extra security added to the initialization. It activates the second I start downloading. It's a silent thing though, I think it is meant to catch us off guard. But after what happened in the security room, I was more careful in checking the code. We're going to have a bit of a fight on our hands."

"Crawlers?" Linda asked concerned.

"Sentinels, about eight," the AI answered. "Modified with tougher shields and armor. Not easy to kill."

"Then we blow them apart," Linda told her. "We can handle a few of those modified rustbuckets. Download the code, Cortana. It's time to finish this."

Cortana just nodded and began the download. As she did, Tali got her shotgun ready, anticipating something to jump out any second. The others did the same. As she scanned the room, she thought she saw something moving in the corner. A metallic whirring sound started up as a red sentinel's eye appeared and targeted Kat. Tali reacted quickly, calling out to the others and pointing. Kat ducked just in time to avoid a sudden laser shot from out of the corner of the room. Tali returned fire with her shotgun, unloading several blasts into the machine as it detached from the wall.

Everyone else joined in, unloading on the Sentinel as it tried to fire again. Under a blaze of bullets and needles, the sentinel took a ton of punishment before it finally exploded and fell to the ground. The heap of molten slag sizzled and sparked loudly as they all looked on.

"About seven left to go," Cortana stated. "And I have the codes, let's get back to the bridge, ASAP."

Seven more sentinels, they could handle that. Tali was more concerned for everyone else. They had a few heavily armored flying bots to destroy. The others had a whole army of killer Crawlers to fight through. With any luck they'd pull it off. Otherwise, no one would be getting out of here.

* * *

Creeping over rocks at a steady pace, the Master Chief led the way into the cavern and found himself a small ledge overlooking the area. Bullets and plasma were already flying when they arrived. While the ceiling was mostly rock, he could see bits and pieces of the _Dauntless_ poking through. Magnifying his helmet's visor, he took look at the fighting below them. He could easily spot Marines and ODSTs engaging the Crawlers. He could also see a number of Jackals and batarians among their number. They were attempting to encircle the Crawlers, who had formed a defense around a cylindrical hub in the middle of the cavern. Its construction resonated with a bright orange. Small shapes hovered and twisted in the air above the object.

Most curious though was a lone Crawler parading along the surface of the device, one with significantly larger spikes on its back. It screamed out at the various other killer machines scurrying around the area and they appeared to respond in kind. Was this some kind of command unit? An AI directing others? It made a bit of sense, given what the command Guilty Spark had over the Sentinels, it stood to reason other Forerunner AI had the same ability. And if Legion's analysis earlier had been right, then these things had some kind of rudimentary AI in all of them. As Shepard, Varvok and Legion moved in beside him, he pointed everything out to them.

"It seems we found your people, Varvok," he said to the batarian. "They're helping the others assault that structure in the center of the room."

"So that's the thing we need to take out to make sure these things stay shutdown then," Shepard reasoned. "Seems simple enough."

Shepard took a peek through his weapon's scope at the device, soon spotting the wandering command unit Crawler. He quickly reached similar conclusions to Shepard.

"Some kind of leader bot," he discerned near instantly. "Looks tougher than the others."

"Legion, could you snipe that thing from here?" Chief asked the geth. "We take him down, it might give the others the chance they need to destroy that device."

"Possible," Legion replied, already looking through the scope of its Widow rifle. "However, we believe it will only be a temporary solution. Observe left lower section."

Chief followed the geth's instruction and took a look. He saw the device light up and out from a slot at the bottom of the object, another robot crawled out to take its place in the firing line. Now it made sense why taking this thing out was important. It was building these things, not just powering them.

"So that's why there are so many," Varvok growled. "They have a mini-synth maker."

"Scans indicate similar additional functionality to a Geth Hub," Legion warned. "Any attempt to destroy Leader Unit will only mildly disrupt Enemy Unit Cohesion. AI will return to Hub, reinstall in new body and return to combat. We can see only one solution, terminate or disable the device."

"That's going to be a bit tricky, given how many of them are in our way," Shepard noted. "We do got one advantage, they're focused on our friends right now. They don't know we're here yet."

"Then we open up a second front," Varvok declared. "Force them to divide their eyes. That will allow our forces to properly encircle them."

"Good plan," Shepard concurred. "But lets spread out a little, we have a good position up here in the high ground, lets not waste it. Chief and me will take the center, Varvok, Legion, take the left and right. We hit them from as many angles as possible, try to draw them away from the device if you can. We need to get an opening if anyone is going to have a chance at taking it down."

The four split up along the ledge, the Master Chief and Shepard taking position among some fallen pieces of debris from the _Dauntless._ Shepard brought out his grenade launcher, while Chief readied his assault rifle. When everyone was in position, they made their move.

Shepard fired a volley of grenades at the mass of Crawlers, exploding among their more tightly packed defensive lines. Chief unleashed his assault rifle at the same time, spewing hot lead into the robots as they scurried to avoid the incoming fire. As they moved to return fire on Shepard and the Spartan, additional gunfire struck their flanks. Legion's expert marksmanship easily put down at least three of the machines before they could reconcile what was happening. Varvok was no slouch either, managing two headshots before firing one of his explosive ballistic blades into the crowd.

Almost instantly, the lead Crawler took notice. It roared at Shepard and Chief, before spewing off a burst of rapid fire at them. Apparently this model had an automatic weapon of some kind, at least the eons old debris held up against the assault. Shepard returned fire, but the nimble machine ducked into the crowd of fellow bots. It didn't matter, they had accomplished the objective, as the mass of Crawlers soon redirected their efforts towards them instead of the main force assaulting them.

Chief could now see a few of Shepard's crewmates among the friendly forces. Jack was throwing biotic punches left and right, sending charging machines flying. She was covered by Thane, who's skill with a rifle proved ridiculously efficient. He managed to kill at least two of the Crawlers with one shot. Chief also saw a burst of flame scorching the Crawler lines. Tracing the fire back to its source, a flamethrower, he spotted Zaeed. He apparently was using the weapon to create a barrier while a small group of Marines and batarians moved into flanking position.

Still, even with all this, they couldn't seem to break the defenses. The hub's construction protocol was churning out Crawlers faster than they could eliminate. It stood to reason that eventually it would run out of resources to keep making them, but Chief didn't like wasting time trying to accomplish that. Chances were there were more Crawlers in the tunnels, on their way to reinforce this position. If they didn't take the device out soon, they'd be the ones encircled. He turned to Shepard, who was keeping up the fire with shotgun and the occasional biotic warp to decimate any charging enemies.

"We need to cut a path to that device," he stated. "They're still trying to reorganize right now, they're vulnerable."

"I know, but it's really hard to make an opening," Shepard explained through gritted teeth. "If we just had a rocket or something maybe..."

A furious barrage of enemy fire cut Shepard off, as he was forced to hug his cover tighter. Chief tried to take aim at the offending hostiles himself, but found himself getting hit by long range fire from crawlers further back in the defensive lines. He had to retreat back to cover as his shields suffered. The sound of Legion's widow suggested that he ended to the long range threat, but now the hostiles shooting at Shepard were charging at their position. Chief readied his weapons and waited for his shields to recharge before he attempted to engage again, expecting them to be upon him before that happened.

Instead, a wide ranged biotic throw struck all of the attacking bots from the side, sending them hurtling away. Chief and Shepard looked out behind their cover to see a most welcome sight, Samara had arrived. She was further down the slope, but she was finally there and unloading into the crawler ranks with reckless abandon. Another closer look and Chief could see another Marine with her, along with Zek. That was certainly an unexpected person to find accompanying the Justicar.

"It seems we arrived just in time, Shepard," Samara called up, throwing a Biotic attack into a mass of Crawlers. "I hope we did not cut it too close."

"You're fine, Samara," Shepard assured her jovially, before quickly addressing the mission at hand. "We need to get to that device in the center. Think you can help me clear a path to it?"

"Of course," Samara assured, turning to the Marine. "Cover us, Private Kowalski."

Kowalski just nodded and resumed firing. As Samara moved up into the fray, Zek followed her, shield in hand. Chief didn't question it, he just followed Shepard down the slope to their target. The Commander threw a Biotic Shockwave into the Crawler ranks as the same time the Asari struck one of the machines with reave. The resulting detonation of the two attacks, sent several machines flying into the air. As Shepard picked off a few with his pistol, he looked over his shoulder to the Chief.

"Head in with Samara, take that thing out!" He ordered. "I'll cover you!"

Shepard took a knee by a large rock and began opening fire into the hole they had just made in the Crawlers' ranks. Chief ran right into it, following after Samara and Zek as they charged for the device in the center. The Crawlers responded quickly, trying to close the gap in their lines. Samara threw biotic punches to knock the machines away with one hand, while she fired off shot from her submachine gun in the other. Chief did his best to watch her back and control the rest of the swarm around them. They could see the device just ahead, if only they could reach it.

As they pressed forward, a pair of Crawlers scrambled up to the top of the stalagmite and began raining fire down on them. Samara dropped to the dirt behind a small boulder, as fire rained down on her. Chief opened up on the attacking Crawlers with his assault rifle, taking their attention off the asari for a brief moment. It was all Samara needed to use her submachine guns to spray a barrage of bullets at the synthetic nuisances. As the robots fell, Samara pushed ahead with even more reckless abandon, her biotic attacks lashing out with devastating impact against any Crawlers nearby.

At that moment, a burst of energy bolts flew at the asari, ripping through her barriers and striking her in the leg. Samara stumbled, falling to one knee in mid-stride. Tracing the shots, Chief spotted the attacker, it was the Lead Crawler, his spine spikes unmistakable. He fired on with a series of bursts, but the machine dodged the incoming the attacks, racing towards the asari on nimble little clawed feet, its weapon charging for a point-blank attack. Chief could see Legion aiming at the machine, tracking it, but slower than usual and not firing like he should.

Then, out of nowhere it seemed, Zek leapt in front of Samara and used his shield to block the incoming shot, saving Samara in the process. The lead Cralwer kept coming though, intending perhaps to charge through the Jackal's shield. Instead, it found its head get sliced off its body by Zek's plasma machete. He turned to Samara, who was busy activating an emergency omni-gel application.

"Come on, get up already!" He shouted at her extending his hand. "We got a machine to smash apparently."

Just as surprising as Zek's timely save, Samara actually took his hand's offer of assistance. The asari stood once more and sent a powerful throw directly at the enemy lines. As Crawlers went flying, Zek moved up, covering whatever spot Samara wasn't shooting at with his shield. Chief moved up behind them, catching up quickly to them. He imagined the Lead Cralwer was already back online as per Legion's analysis, they'd have to work fast to press that advantage.

He didn't really have any significant explosives on him, not enough to damage the Crawler Maker, or whatever it was called. In fact, he had used up all his grenades at this point. So that option was out. He did, however, spot a possibility. Overhead, he could see bits of the _Dauntless'_ superstructure poking out of the rocks. There was one such jagged piece of debris hanging over the device itself. Remembering how they had sought cover behind fallen bulkheads before, he thought now that perhaps they could force a similar issue. They just needed a way to dislodge it. Keeping in cover behind a small boulder he called over to Zek, hopeful that what they needed he could provide.

"Zek, I need a grenade," he shouted over to him. "You got any?"

Zek dug in his pack as he defended Samara with his shield, the Justicar kneeling down behind him. Eventually, the Jackal produced a plasma grenade in his hands.

"Only one," he stated.

Great, that meant there could be no screw ups here. Judging the angle from the floor to the ceiling where the piece of hanging debris was, he did not like the odds of throwing it right. He needed more power, that's where Samara came in.

"Can you use your biotics to force that grenade into a specific position?" He asked the asari.

"It is possible," Samara replied. "Where do you wish it to go?"

Chief just pointed at the jagged bit of Forerunner ship metal above the Crawler device. The Asari understood instantly. She took the grenade from Zek as the Spartan readied Forerunner pistol in his hands. Samara reeled back her arm and threw the grenade at the ceiling, sending a biotic wave right after it. The wave managed to keep the explosive on a steady trajectory, hurtling towards the piece of debris. It was now down to the Master Chief, he took careful aim with the alien weapon, charging it to full blast to increase his odds. When he saw the grenade get close to the piece of jagged bulkhead, he fired the shot right at it. The charged bolt sailed through the air and collided with the grenade.

The blue explosion erupted near the jagged bit of a metal. It shook for a moment or two and then completely dislodged from the ship itself. As it fell towards the device below, Chief, Zek and Samara fell back, running as fast as they could. The debris smashed down, stabbing clean through the Crawler device. Second later there was a eruption of electrical sparks and fire. The power source must have been ruptured in some way. The resulting shockwave from the blast threw Chief and his two companions to the ground as the orange glow from the device itself died.

One by one, the crawlers still remaining dropped to the floor dead, their link to the security node within the device completely severed, along with whatever programs remained within the device's AI hub. There was a sudden rising cheer from the Marines, Batarians and Jackals. Zek only offered a sigh of relief as he rolled over and laid on his back. Chief pushed himself up instead alongside Samara and greeted Shepard as he regrouped with them.

"This is only half of the equation," the Spartan reminded the Commander. "There are still active Crawlers running around controlled by the security system within the bridge. Until that's shutdown, we're all still in danger."

"At least they can't replenish their numbers," Shepard said, remaining optimistic. "If Tali and the others are on the Bridge right now, that other problem will sort itself out. Until then, we regroup for a possible counterattack."

That, Chief thought, and hope they heard from Cortana soon.

* * *

Kat opened fire sporadically on the Sentinels as they swarmed through the air. Their shields were a lot stronger than the ones they had fought on Halo, however. Her bullets were not nearly as effective as they should've been. She had other means at her disposal though. Activating her overload function installed in her robot arm's omni-tool, she fired a power surge directly into the middle of the swarm, killing their shields with ease.

"Their defenses are down," Kat shouted aloud to the others. "Hit them now before they regenerate!"

Taq took aim and fired a spread of needles at one of the machines. Pink shards embedded themselves in the tough armor of the Sentinel. A pink burst soon enveloped the robot and it plummeted to the ground in a flaming heap. In retaliation, a Sentinel turned and fired at Taq, forcing the Jackal to duck behind a console lest she be sliced in half by the incoming beam.

"How much longer until the system is shutdown?" Taq asked as she crawled to better cover.

"We're working on it!" Tali insisted, keeping her head low as she worked feverishly on one of the consoles. "It's hard to input the procedure when you're being shot at!"

As if to illustrate her point, one of the Sentinels shot at Tali's console, forcing the quarian to squat down to protect herself from further fire.

"Keelah, that tears it!" She growled, activating her omni-tool. "Chiktikka, fry them!"

The purple combat drone materialized and instantly rolled into the fray. It fired a devastating blast right into the belly of the nearest Sentinel. It survived the blow and returned fire, slashing out a powerful beam. Chiktikka managed to avoid the attack by strafing to the left and fired another electronic blast that hit the Sentinel right in the laser beam's power source. The resulting explosion ripped the head off the Sentinel entirely and it fell to the floor dead.

"Three down," Tali called out as she returned to work.. "Five to go! Keep distracting them Chiktikka."

Tali finished up on the console as fast as she could. Cortana appeared moments later next to her hand.

"Okay, first phase complete," she reported. "I'm inputting the passcodes now. It will take moment to connect to every individual console. One they unlock, pull the relic out of the system as fast as possible. We can't risk it rebooting automatically if we take too long."

Given how many failsafes they had encountered so far with this whole ship, Tali didn't doubt that there was probably another one that restarted the system if you didn't do just that. At that moment, another laser beam sliced over her head just barely missing her. It was enough to mess with her shields though. In response, she fired her shotgun at the Sentinel. The machine took damage, but remained active.

"Just hurry, Cortana," Tali insisted.

Tali moved away from the console, the Sentinel chasing after her. It was so focused on the quarian though, it didn't notice Kat rushing up from the side to smash it in the face. Or at least what passed as a face. The machine flew out of control, smashing into a wall. Kat stomped on it with her foot, firing her pistol point blank into its body until it started to sputter.

"I almost forgot how much I hated these things," she snorted as she reloaded her weapon.

Two of the four remaining Sentinels moved in on Kat, firing their beams at the Spartan. Forced to retreat to cover, Kat fired back at them from behind a small console. Just off to the right, Linda readied her sniper rifle and leveled it at the two Sentinels. She held her breath and then, with careful aim, fired a single shot at the Sentinels. The shot slashed into the side of one of the machines and then exited out the other side to slice into the second Sentinel's power source. While that Sentinel exploded, the first one started to fly out of control and smash into the ground. The machine tried to fly once more, only for Taq to smash her plasma axe into the robot as it sputtered to get airborne.

"Two more!" Taq called out with glee. "We got this girls!"

"Celebrate when the other two are dead!" Linda shouted at her.

A laser shot forced Linda back down into cover, the Sentinel firing it speeding in from above. Taq responded quickly, throwing her plasma axe into the attacking machine. With the energy blade still stuck in it, the robot pulled away from from its attack. Good for Linda, not so much for Taq.

"Hey! Get back here!" She called out at the Sentinel. "You know how hard it is to find one of those things on the market!"

As Taq went after her plasma axe, Tali vaulted over her cover back into the fray. By now, Cortana had to be close to shutting the system down. They needed to be ready to pull the relic out when that happened.

As she rushed to get closer to the central platform, she spotted the other remaining Sentinel closing in on her. She fired her shotgun at it in successive bursts, ripping off pieces of its armor. It steadied itself, however, and took aim at the quarian. Before it could fire though, the other Sentinel smashed into it. Both of the machines collided into the wall. Tali looked to where the other Sentinel had come from and saw Taq lying on a console with her plasma axe in hand.

"I got it back!" She announced, waving the tool around.

At that moment a klaxxon sound began to ring throughout the bridge. The central platform itself began to vent steam as cables started detaching themselves. Cortana popped up on one of the consoles.

"Shutdown commencing," she shouted. "Get the relic now!"

Tali raced from her position, charging up the platform as fast as she could. The relic resonated with powerful glow, almost blinding, as the system began to shutdown. Tali darkened her visor's shading as much as she could, but even then it still hurt to look at. With no more time to spare, she grabbed at the Relic and began to pull.

And that was when a powerful shock hit her system hard. She was flung back off the platform, slamming into the Captain's console before falling to the floor. She could hear the whole bridge powering down, the klaxxon growing dimmer and softer. What became much louder was the ringing in her head, like something pounding at her skull. She came out of it as soon as it started, however, when her vision unblurred and she saw Kat standing over her, shaking her shoulders.

"Tali," she called out frantically. "Tali, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the quarian responded, slowly sitting up. "I'm okay."

She then looked down and saw, cradled in her arms, was the relic. Its resonance had dimmed, becoming a more moderate glow that did not hurt her eyes. She could see its form more clearly now, the hexagonal pyramid shape easier to see, the X-handle removed to reveal a slightly pointed base. Even with the glow gone, she could still feel the power coursing through the artifact, pooling over her hands.

She didn't feel it for too long though, as Taq was quick to rush over to the quarian. Sensing what she wanted, Tali let the Jackal take the relic. Taq's grin was one of absolute joyous exuberance, as she held the artifact in her talon and lifted it above her head. She started laughing with glee and Tali wondered if she was about to cry, but the avian tomb raider held it together and managed to remain relatively composed.

"Cortana," she said, her tone one of sincere elation. "See if you can contact the other teams. Tell them we've done it, we have what we came for."

* * *

Everyone eventually managed to regroup in the bridge section of the _Dauntless_. The various deactivated Crawlers outside in the caverns suggested that they had succeeded in shutting the security system down. McKay had the ODSTs keep a secure perimeter around the area just in case though. At the same time, Kat was trying to boost the communication systems on the bridge in order to report back to the surface. They needed to know the operation was a success. They were no doubt concerned by now after being out of contact for so long. They'd be happy to know that the relic was now in their possession.

Taq held onto the artifact itself, placing it in her satchel for the time being. She was busy working with Tali to dig deeper into the _Dauntless'_ archives. The bridge's security was disabled now, making progress on that front far easier now. Shepard was just happy to see that Tali was okay, a little shaken maybe given that she had taken an unknown energy blast at point blank range, but she was okay. He'd still make sure Chakwas took look at her when they got back though.

Once the teams had reunited, the whole picture of the _Dauntless_ became clear, with Linda explaining things to Shepard and the Master Chief best she could. It was a lot to take in, especially the fact that they had been fighting the crew this whole time. Shepard couldn't help but astonished at the lengths the Forerunners had gone to just to protect this one little artifact.

"This whole mission certainly brings a whole new meaning to the term Ghost Ship," the Commander noted. "They must have been really scared about the prospect of that relic falling into the wrong hands."

"And we still don't even know what it does," Chief added. "Although I think we can now assume it's nothing we want the Covenant getting their hands on."

"With any luck, we'll find out more about its purpose when we're done looking through the ship's logs," Linda assured the two. "For now, I'm just happy this whole mess of an operation is over."

"It wasn't that much of a mess," Shepard corrected her. "Despite everything that happened, we all managed to work together regardless of history or background. We pulled this off together, McKay alone proved that by leading the initial assault on that Crawler Device."

"I'd like to think that, sir," Chief was quick to cut in. "But animosity doesn't go away overnight, not in my experience."

"It doesn't, but it's a start," Shepard assured him.

As they spoke, Shepard noticed Zek walking up to Samara and Kowalski. The two were conferring with Kowalski's squad from the looks of it. When the asari noticed the pirate leader walking up to her, she turned gracefully towards him.

"So, it all worked out it seemed," Zek claimed. "We helped each other and took out the device. And I'm not too proud to admit we couldn't have done it without you. For a self-righteous cop with a murder fetish, you're not all bad."

"And you're saying this because...?" Samara asked.

"Because what I told you before is true," Zek insisted. "I'm not that bad a guy and just because we have different philosophies doesn't mean we have to hate each other. So why don't we bury the hatchet, and I mean in the ground, not in each other's backs. Sound fair?"

Zek held out his hand... but Samara did not take it. She just looked at it stoically, unnerving Zek somewhat after a few seconds.

"I will admit, I did not expect you of all people to protect me during that assault on the device," the asari eventually relented, her voice as cold as ever. "You perhaps possess more admirable qualities than I originally believed. You are a pirate, but you are not entirely wicked. I will admit to that, for I am not so proud myself. However, this changes nothing. The code is clear on these matters and I will continue to respect my code."

Samara walked off, leaving Zek hanging and looking a little bit perturbed. As he and Kowalski looked on, he took a brief look at the Marine with a critical eye.

"Good luck with that one, human," he snorted. "She's a level of crazy I don't deal with. Not anymore."

Zek walked off next, leaving a rather flummoxed Kowalski behind.

"What the hell does that mean?" He asked in confusion and frustration.

While Zek's failure to truly create a bridge between himself and Samara was disheartening, it did remind Shepard of one other thing he still needed to do. He excused himself from Linda and Chief and made his way towards the a group of batarians currently on the bridge. Varvok was with them, looking somewhat contemplative. When he spotted Shepard, he waved his people off and walked over to him, clearly sensing the Commander's desire to talk.

"I just wanted to say... I'm sorry," Shepard told him quickly.

"For what exactly?" Varvok asked skeptically.

"Not for what you probably want," Shepard replied sincerely. "I'm not going to apologize for humanity and I'm not going to try and give another excuse for Torfan. It won't be genuine if I try. Whoever your brothers were though, whatever they did, they still meant something to you. They were your family. And I know how important that is. I shouldn't have touched that nerve, it was wrong."

Varvok didn't say anything, but his expression was enough. The batarian just nodded and let his eyes sink a bit. Shepard continued, hoping to get out more of what he meant to say.

"I know this isn't easy for you," he explained. "Maybe in some ways it isn't for me either. I like to think I don't hold any animosity for your people. I may have fought them in the Blitz, but I don't hate them. That's at least what I hope is true, some days I don't know."

"What are you trying to say, Shepard?" Varvok asked, sounding somewhat impatient.

"That I know this isn't how you planned to serve your people,"Shepard told him somberly. "That this isn't what you intended to do with your life. I know that better than most and therefore I should've recognized it earlier. You and your men are basically exiles now. I can still go home when all is said and done. You? Even if we do get back to our dimension, you'll still be outcasts. You're in a bad situation and you're not happy with it at all. I get it, I really do."

Varvok let his defenses down a little, his face softening.

"I should be more open to what you have to say," Shepard continued. "You're a capable leader and you deserve more credit for that. At the same time though, I need you to understand, I'm not your enemy. I never was. Now that we are on the same side, we need to start acting like it. Today proved we need each other if we're going to survive this war, if any of us want to have any hope of stopping the Covenant and getting home. We need to listen to each other, that goes as much for me as it does you."

Varvok made a sound under his throat, one that sounded for once more agreeable than that of a grunt of irritation. His expression completely softened now, the bitterness and anger draining out of it. He looked back at Shepard with an earnest conviction in all four of his eyes now.

"I can look past it all," the batarian claimed. "The anger, the hate, I can let it go, I think I can at least try. Honestly, fighting you is too tiring and I can see it's not helping. That much was clear when we were being chased by the Crawlers. In the middle of my rage, you still protected me down in those caverns. I won't forget that, but I can't promise all my men will be as willing to let go. As long as you understand the why though... I can live with working with a human. So long as it means we take the Covenant down."

"That's what we both want, Varvok," Shepard said, extending his hand. "So why don't we help each other make it happen?"

Varvok looked at Shepard's hand for a brief moment and then took it. He shook it once and then let go. That was enough as far as Shepard was concerned. For now at least, he knew where Varvok stood and perhaps it meant they could move forward.

The moment was interrupted, however, when Taq started shouting a loud.

"Zek! Zek!" She yelled excitedly. "You gotta see this! Come on!"

Shepard and Varvok's attention was instantly caught. They both walked over to see what Taq was yelling about. The Pirate Leader in question was already there at her side, leaning over both her and Tali and trying to see the screen on their console.

"What is it?" Zek asked. "What did you two find?"

"We found mission logs, that's what," Taq claimed. "The _Dauntless_ was apparently on a second mission of greater importance. One that was secret to all but a few officers aboard."

"From the looks of it, they had started out on their journey well before the Halo Array was completed in order to give them enough time," Tali continued. "They weren't headed directly to the wormhole. They had... other stops to make."

Tali activated a command on the dashboard of the console. The central platform where the relic had once resided now activated. A holographic starchart now hovered above it, showing the huge expanse of the galaxy before them, but only four key systems were highlighted. Four systems and four planets, to be precise. Each planet had a clear set of coordinates on it along with a data entry next to it. And each entry contained the key phrase that they had first seen in Taq's data module, Relic of Power.

"They were going to pick up more," Taq exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement. "We have the coordinate for three more relics!"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Zek shouted, almost laughing at the news. "Holy crap, this is... this is amazing! We find one treasure and it leads us to even more! How lucky can a bird get?"

Shepard understood that this was a great find, but he was more focused on one of the planets indicated on the starchart. That was because they had been there, it was the first planet they had ever stepped foot on in this reality. Reach, there was another relic on Reach. When Shepard realized that he turned to Chief and saw he was transfixed on the very same thing he was. It wasn't hard to figure out what was currently rolling around in the Spartan's head at that moment.

However, he wasn't able to look at it for long, as Taq apparently had more information to share.

"It's not just those four relics, Zek," Taq insisted. "I translated some of the logs with Cortana's help. The relics when brought together reveal the location of a fifth artifact, one I think we're intimately aware of already."

"What are you talking about?" Zek asked, confused.

"Cortana," Taq said. "Put up the file you uncovered, now."

Cortana followed her instructions and the image of the starchart changed once more. Now instead a different image appeared. It showed a figure of some kind, holding aloft what appeared to a sword with energy radiating off it. Above both the figure and the sword, a slash in the very sky, with fire and lighting pouring out of the breach. Shepard had no idea what the significance was... but he could see on both Zek and Taq's faces that they did. Before anyone could really ask what it was all about, Zek spoke up.

"Is that what I...?" He began, his tone one of disbelief more than anything.

Taq just nodded, her astonishment evident in every word she spoke.

"It is," she insisted. "I'd bet every little thing I have in my name on it. We just found the map to the Astral Cutlass!"

* * *

AN: Questions? You probably have a few. Feel free to ask them in your reviews. And do come back next time where you'll get some of those answers soon enough. All you need to know now is that this treasure hunt is far from over. Thanks again for reading and see you next time.


	13. The Golden Age

**Chapter 12: The Golden Age**

 _Only the Devil and I know the Whereabouts of My Treasure,_

 _And The One of Us who Lives the Longest should Take it All!_

 _-Edward "Blackbeard" Teach_

The galley of the _Fallen Serpent_ wasn't exactly the ideal place to have a talk about these kind of matters. Zek had insisted, however, for the purposes of "atmosphere" as he claimed. Shepard felt he had already had his fill of watching the drunken carousing of the space pirates, but apparently their leader felt differently. The one thing that made things slightly more tolerable was the fact Taq was there. She had her own set of quirks, but at least she knew how to get to the point and keep to business more often than not. That at least assured him they would be staying on topic. Said topic was what Taq had supposedly found in _The Dauntless'_ logs, concerning the ship's ultimate goal. Which was why the Master Chief was here on behalf of the UNSC alongside Cortana. Varok was here as well, representing his people in person. There were all here, more or less, to ask a very simple question.

"What exactly is an Astral Cutlass and why is it so important?" Shepard asked bluntly.

"It's fairly simple," Taq responded dutifully. "It's why Snarlbeak and the Syndicate want me dead."

"Still a bit vague," Cortana cut in suddenly. "Maybe actually bother to explain the specifics, please?"

"It's just a little complicated," Taq explained. "To do any kind of justice to the subject at hand, I'd need to go into a very long series of myths and legends passed around from ship to ship back in the Golden Era of Piracy. Legends that were old even back then."

"Lucky for you guys, I have a better way!" Zek insisted. He then looked over to a corner of he room and shouted aloud; "Lek! Storytime!"

At that moment the various carousing Jackals stopped talking amongst themselves and began pounding their tables. Still grasping mugs of ichor in their claws, they shouted "Lek! Lek!" over and over again. Eventually bits of the crowd parted as someone headed towards the main table they were all sitting at. Climbing on top of the surface, appeared a very old looking Jackal in disheveled grimy light armor. His quills were shorter and not as well groomed, his beak had more scars and chips in it than on average and his skin wrinkled and worn. He hunched over more than most as he hobbled towards the head of the table. Eventually Zek bothered to introduce him to everyone.

"Everyone, this is the _Fallen Serpent's_ Senior crewmember," he explained. "Our record keeper, Ichor stores manager, and singer of the old songs himself, Lek."

In response, Lek just sniffed down something from his nostrils into his throat before spitting it off to the side.

"Charming," Cortana noted dryly.

"What do you want now, Zek?" Lek asked in a growling, ancient, grumbling voice. "I was having a very good dream just now. There was a pool of ichor and fresh fruits and I was being showered in creds chips by the cart load."

"You can get back to that in a minute, old timer," Zek assured. "Our business associates need a lesson in pirate mythology. Sing the Legend of the Astral Cutlass for us, please."

Lek's grouchy disposition lightened somewhat, as he nodded his head and scratched the scraggy underside of his beak.

"Astral Cutlass? My, my, haven't done that one in a long time," he recalled. "Most anyone here ever wants to hear is the story of Ultra Chorka or the Battle of the Raging Typhoon."

"Perhaps another time," Zek told him. "This is more relevant right now."

"No need to twist my arm," Lek assured, motion towards the back of the room and whistling. "Give us a tune, ya filthy ingrates!"

A small band of Pirates got gathered around a nearby music terminal and punched in some commands. While they did that, Lek cleared his own instrument, his voice, coughing up more phlegm and bile and spitting it into a grimaced at it all, he wasn't the only one a little uncomfortable about all this though.

"For the record, I wanted to give a proper academic lecture about this," Taq explained. "I had a holo-presentation and everything."

"But that would've been boring," Zek suddenly interrupted. "My way is more fun! HIT IT!"

The music started up suddenly at Zek's command. The instrumental evoked a song of high adventure and and quests of old, with pounding riffs and swelling chords. It then suddenly cut to a more even tune, this was where Lek began to sing, his voice as gravely as before but keeping in harmony with the music nonetheless.

 **Aeons ago, when the cosmos were new,**

 **The heavens belonged to the free.**

 **Pirates and Rogues sailed the black void,**

 **Plundering all they could see.**

 **Among them was one, a bandit unrivaled,**

 **Who pillaged the stars with no fear.**

 **For within his talons, he held a great sword,**

 **A Weapon without any peer!**

At this moment, during the chorus, the other pirates joined in to sing along with Lek as he revealed the name of the weapon in question.

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Forged in the Fires of a Dying Dwarf Star!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Bringer of Death, Many Ships it laid Low!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **No place you can hide, No matter how Far!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Grants you the Power to Slay any Foe!**

Shepard continued to watch as Lek moved up and down the table, looking to individual pirates as he continued to sing his little ballad. The room was now in an absolute uproar, stomping their feet and clapping their hands to the beat of the music, as Lek relayed the tale with quick, rapid hand gestures that belied his ancient exterior.

 **Slashing his way through all that opposed him,**

 **The Pirate set ablaze Fleets and Moons!**

 **None could hope to stand against him,**

 **The Cutlass did call for their Doom!**

 **Appearing from Nothing, A Storm from the Black!**

 **No Planet was beyond the Great Blade's reach!**

 **The Pirate now sought the Greatest of Plunders,**

 **For the Gates of Paradise would he Breach!**

 **He charged with Weapon in hand, Cosmic Power Aflame!**

 **Soon the whole Galaxy would know it's name!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Forged in the Fires of a Dying Dwarf Star!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Bringer of Death, Many Ships it laid Low!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **No place you can hide, No matter how Far!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Grants you the Power to Slay any Foe!**

While Zek seemed to be clearly enjoying this, and Shepard himself found the musical number a bit amusing, he would've preferred if they just got to the point. Seemingly sensing he was about to interrupt and ask a more direct explanation though, Zek quieted him with a shush.

"We're getting to the best part, listen!" He insisted.

Lek suddenly became more grave in his tone and gestures, speaking to the crowd as he backed up slightly.

 **The Halls of Paradise were Plundered,**

 **Ancient Treasures stolen in one Great Raid.**

 **But too late did the Pirate soon find,**

 **That there was a price to be paid.**

 **The Power of Celestial Might,**

 **Reprisals most Deadly and Swift.**

 **Such a Force, not even the Cutlass could Stand,**

 **And soon the Tide of Fortune did Shift.**

 **The Cutlass was Taken and Hidden,**

 **But it may one day yet be free!**

 **And whoever dare wields its steel,**

 **Shall be Lord of the Voidless Sea!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Forged in the Fires of a Dying Dwarf Star!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Bringer of Death, Many Ships it laid Low!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **No place you can hide, No matter how Far!**

 **Legend of the Astral Cutlass!**

 **Grants you the Power to Slay any Foe!**

As the song ended, a great cheer went up from the surrounding throng of Jackals. They clapped and stomped and whistled aloud. Lek just bowed graciously, before grabbing a bottle of ichor someone had tossed him. He began chugging it hard. When he was done, he smashed onto the table top and and raised his arms above his head triumphant.

"Alright then, piss off everyone," he shouted. "I'm getting me something filled with grease to eat!"

His fellow Pirates helped him down and few even followed him out the door to find said food. That left Zek and Taq to elaborate further on the whole story that everyone else had just sat through. Zek seemed to be looking for approval of his method. Shepard didn't bother with that, he just tried to suss out the truth from the lyrics he could recall.

"So you think that the Forerunners were trying to recover an ancient legendary weapon that once belonged to a Space Pirate Warlord who sacked heaven," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose in disbelief. "A weapon that apparently gave him the power to burn moons and destroy entire fleets. What part of that am I supposed to find the least ridiculous? Help me out here."

"I know it sounds fantastic, but hear me out for a second," Taq pleaded. "When you remove the eccentric elements of any myth there is some truth to them. Supposedly, the Astral Cutlass gave its wielder the ability to travel anywhere in the galaxy on a whim, instantly. Sounds a bit like Slipspace Travel, correct?"

"So it's a sword that makes rips in time and space?" Varvok asked. "I have to be honest, I find that hard to believe myself."

"It's probably not actually a sword," Taq corrected. "It could be a power source or a ship, one that just looks like a sword. Try not to take everything so literal. Besides, is it that hard to believe the Forerunners had that kind of technology given everything you've witnessed so far? Especially after being inside a damn ship that could re-arrange its insides?"

"The construction of ship being able to alter itself is one thing," Cortana informed her. "Something that can open rifts in time and space that can also destroy entire fleets and celestial bodies is a bit much."

Taq clearly could see they needed more than just her word, so she brought a data module and activated it. It displayed what they had found on the ship's computer, including the symbol that had set this whole theory into motion. The image of the figure holding a sword that seemed to be splitting the sky.

"Doesn't that look a little like a slipspace rift to you?" Taq asked rather sternly. "At all?"

"There were people on Earth who thought a stone carving of a man descending into the underworld was a picture of him being blasted into space in a rocket," Shepard countered. "Pictures can lie or we enforce our own thoughts and beliefs onto them if we don't know the context."

"Did any of them find that same carving in an ancient Forerunner ship?" Taq asked sardonically. "No? Because this image is pretty similar to depictions of the Astral Cutlass legend found on Eayn!"

Taq clicked a button that showed two images side by side, both depicting more or less the same image of a figure cutting the sky open. One was the image they found on the Forerunner ship, the other was in an old book depicting ancient pirate legends. Of all the things he had heard so far, this was the most convincing, Shepard couldn't deny that.

"Okay, that is a bit... freaky," he admitted aloud. "But we're still talking about a sword that can do a lot of seemingly impossible things. Embellished by a pirate song or not, it's still difficult to just believe in this outright."

"You don't have to," Taq relented. "But clearly both Snarlbeak and the Syndicate do believe it. Somehow, they discovered that the _Dauntless_ was the key to finding the Cutlass. Now, they both want it. Because with it..."

"They can become pirate lord of the voidless sea," Cortana interrupted again. "Yes, we all remember the song. How would they go about finding it?"

Taq clicked on her data module again and the holo shifted to the star map once more. There they could again see the pinpoint locations of three other planets across the galaxy. One of them being Reach. Shepard looked again to the Master Chief and tried to guess at what he was feeling over all this. He knew it had to be a swarm of emotions, all concerning his fellow Spartans, the ones he left behind on Reach. For now though, Chief kept his mouth shut, just taking everything Taq said in.

"Near as I can tell, there are four relics," the female jackal explained astutely. "They're scattered across the galaxy in this particular quadrant. If I'm reading the logs right, and I probably am, finding all four relics will reveal the Astral Cutlass' final resting place. All you need to do is acquire the four of them, further instructions more than likely will follow."

"So it's a map to find a map," Varvok observed. "The Forerunners never did anything easy, did they?"

"That is an accurate assessment of their culture, yes," Taq answered plainly. "The point I'm trying to make is that they felt this was important. They kept these relics separate from each other in order to hide this weapon and then they decided to go on a cosmic road trip to get them all before they left for a new galaxy. They were trying to keep the Cutlass out of the hands of, well, whoever it was they were trying to keep all those relics away from."

"The location of a weapon hidden in four other potential weapons," Cortana mused. "Varvok is right, this is a bit convoluted. Why?"

"I don't have an answer," Taq confessed. "All I know is that if the Forerunners were this scared of these artifacts falling into the wrong hands, it stands to reason they had legit concerns. Whether or not it's because they lead to the Astral Cutlass, they still lead to something. We have a map to quite possibly the greatest treasure in the galaxy, the thing all baby kig-yar pirates dream about in their nests. This is huge!"

"If this Cutlass is real, yes," Varvok cautiously agreed. "But even if these relics do all lead to something, there's no guarantee that it is what you think it is."

Zek cut in at that moment, raising his mug of ichor towards Taq in support.

"If Taq believes the Cutlass is real and these relics can locate it, I believe her," he insisted. "She's never been wrong about this stuff before. Just give her some credit on this. I mean, she's not the only one who came to this conclusion. Snarlbeak and the Syndicate both think this is the real deal."

Taq looked a bit conflicted at Zek's defense of her, but said nothing, waiting for anyone else to respond. Luckily, Cortana at least seemed slightly more receptive at this point.

"At the very least I do believe the other three relics the ship was meant to pick up do exist," Cortana stated. "Letting the Covenant get their hands on any would be potentially disastrous if any of them are as powerful as we're led to believe. Given the one we found was capable of powering an entire hive mind system of killer robots, I think we can presume they are indeed worth keeping out of enemy hands."

"If it means you'll still go after these relics, I don't really care what you believe," Taq declared passionately as she stood up from her seat. "But I stand by what my findings suggest. Gathering the remaining three will lead us to the Astral Cutlass. It's why Snarlbeak wanted the data module, it's why the Syndicate wants me dead. And I'd suggest you impress upon Holland how incredibly, deeply, important this is. Not just potentially for the UNSC war effort, but what it could mean for the study of xeno-archaeology."

Shepard almost saw a bit of Liara in Taq at that moment, although even the Asari was never so direct about her work studying the protheans. This was important to her at least, that much was clear. Maybe it was because her life was at stake, but he sensed there was more to this. Why would she be so insistent on the Cutlass existing otherwise?

"Keeping the relics away from the Covenant is vital," Varvok said, his words as firm as Taq's. "Whatever else we may believe or not does not matter. The Covenant believe these artifacts are their birthright and their key to maintaining their stranglehold on the galaxy. Take them from beneath their watch and we strike a blow to their morale as well as their ability to advance their war machine further."

"That is something Holland will get behind," Cortana concurred. "Everything else is a crap shoot at the moment."

"We'll make sure the Colonel is aware of your thoughts on this Taq, but I can't promise anything," Shepard informed her. "After what happened down there in the _Dauntless_ he might be a bit more cautious about going after anymore relics."

"At least try, Commander," Taq insisted. "We can't let the Covenant or anyone else steal this chance from us."

With the meeting done, the group departed the galley. Varvok left to go inform his men about the situation, but Shepard remained with the Master Chief and Cortana. As they began to make their way out of the _Serpent_ they continued the discussion on the Cutlass.

"Ancient super powerful space pirate sword," the Commander said coyly. "Well, not the weirdest thing I've ever heard of, but it's up there."

"Do you honestly think it's real, sir?" Chief asked him.

"Like Taq said, I don't think it matters what any of us think," Shepard told him. "Apparently enough people already believe this cutlass is out there and these relics will lead them to it. Even if it turns out to be a dud, we still have three powerful artifacts out there up for grabs. Cutlass or no, we can't take the risk of just ignoring this. Not when we got a way to snatch them before the Covenant do."

"I suppose we won't know for sure until we get the remaining three anyway," Chief admitted. "Hopefully that's enough to convince Holland."

Chief put a hand on the Spartan's shoulder, stopping him mid-stride.

"Hey, I know this isn't about the Cutlass for you," he admitted. "This is about Reach, the fact a relic might be there is just a happy accident."

"If we stop the Covenant from getting a new toy, that's enough," the Spartan confessed. "But if there is even the slightest chance of finding out what happened to my team, we have to take it."

"There may be a chance the Covenant have already found what they wanted though," Cortana cautioned. "If Holland thinks that going to Reach is a dead end, we might not go at all."

"If we back each other up, we can convince him," Shepard assured them both. "I know we can. I said I'd support getting you back to Reach in any way, Chief. I meant it. If this helps us do that, I'm all for it."

"Same here," Cortana added compassionately. "You deserve closure if nothing else."

Chief just nodded at that, his usual all-encompassing sign of approval and thanks.

"It's good to know I have your support," he told them. "I know the likelihood of them being alive is slim. All I want is to know. Better yet, I think I have an idea on how to convince Holland to go there."

"You can tell me while we walk," Shepard insisted. "The sooner we get this settled, the faster we can get to Reach before something else happens."

"Don't say that," Cortana sarcastically pleaded. "Now something is bound to happen."

* * *

Down in the _Ascendant Justice's_ hangar bay, ODSTs were hard at work offloading equipment and recovered Forerunner tech. They weren't sure how much of it they could really use, but given the Master Chief had recovered a gun from the head of one of the robots, anything was possible. Lieutenant McKay was overseeing everything personally. She wanted to be sure everything was accounted for, after what had happened with the stolen grenades she was done taking chances. As she watched her people take crates off the pelicans, one of them suddenly turned to her. He was carrying a mangled Crawler corpse, holding the thing up by it's neck like it was some kind of chicken.

"Hey LT.," He asked. "Think this thing has a fancy ancient sniper rifle inside?"

"That's for people smarter than either me or you to figure out, Trooper," she stated jovially. "Just get it catalogued."

The trooper nodded and continued on his way. Mere seconds later, Sergeant Buck was at her side. He inquisitively scanned the various odds and ends being unloaded. McKay could see a slight bit of a concern on his face.

"We sure none of those things are going to wake up and start attacking again?" He asked.

"Cortana, EDI, Tali and Noble Two have all run scans on these remains," she assured him. "The AI controlling them are gone, dead. We wouldn't be bringing them aboard otherwise."

"Well that's a relief," Buck said, let out a relaxed sigh. "If we're getting fancy guns from ancient aliens out of this deal, I'd prefer to not have it all come back to bite us."

"Even if we can't get the guns, we still have a ship full of Engineers," McKay reminded him. "Those gas bags are experts with this Forerunner stuff. We can just hand it all over to them and see what they come up with. That's what I hear Taq suggested anyway."

"Would be nice to give them something do besides fix the ship up constantly," Buck noted. "They gotta get bored of that at some point."

McKay just laughed slightly.

"Have you ever seen one of them complain?" She asked.

"No, they mostly just make funny noises and float," Buck answered. "I think that's their default mode though."

The light-hearted conversation was cut short when McKay heard someone calling for her from behind. She looked to see Lieutenant Elias Haverson waving at her from behind. Buck turned along with her and saluted the ONI officer as he approached. Once Haverson returned the gesture he looked back to McKay.

"I see things are going smoothly on this end," he noted. "How much have we got back up?"

"Most of the essentials," McKay reported. "Along with over half the recovered Forerunner materials that were cleared for transport. It shouldn't take more than another hour or so before we're done."

"Good, Holland wants us to be underway before too long," Haverson explained. "We've already pressed our luck enough on this venture. We spend more time here than we have to and who knows who else might show up."

"It will all be taken care of before any major problems cross our path, sir," Buck assured.

"Let's hope so, Sergeant, for all our sakes," Haverson stated, before turning back to McKay once more. "Lieutenant, can I have a moment of your time?"

McKay just nodded and looked to Buck. He took her meaning without her needing to say anything and took over her watch. Haverson led McKay just a few feet away from the action, conversing as they walked.

"Tough couple of days to be sure," he began simply.

"It was rough going down there, but we managed," McKay assured. "Yesterday just had a few more surprises than expected."

"I'm not just talking about the _Dauntless_ wreck, McKay," Haverson clarified. "Although as I understand it, you performed exceptionally in the circumstances. Colonel Holland thinks the same."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Lieutenant," McKay told him graciously. "I'd like to think I've just been doing the best I can."

"Given everything that's happened, I'd say you're underestimating your full impact," he told her rather plainly. "I know none of this has been easy for you, especially after the mutiny."

McKay was caught a bit off guard by the reference to said event, but she maintained her composure.

"It was a trying time for, well, all of us," she assured him. "On both sides of the issue."

"I appreciate your humility, McKay, but the facts are pretty clear," he explained, stopping and turned to face her. "Major Silva was your superior officer, your friend and colleague. Many of the Helljumpers who followed his lead during the mutiny were trained by you. The fact you remained un-compromised by that emotionally is a testament to your resolve."

McKay wasn't sure how to react to that. On one hand, it was an obvious compliment. On the other, the whole mutiny incident always dragged up bad memories. She didn't like reliving them.

"It was not exactly a proud moment either way, Lieutenant," McKay explained. "I didn't want to do any of the things I was forced to do. But I knew my friend was wrong and had to be stopped from making a terrible mistake. I only wish things had ended differently."

"We all do, McKay, me included," Haverson assured her. "I'm not sure how I would've handled things in the same situation. But your actions saved lives, Melissa. More than we can possibly count."

"I wish more people saw it that way," she informed him.

"Being a leader sometimes means making unpopular decisions, McKay," Haverson explained. "Holland and I are more than aware of the flak you've been getting, we share some of it after all."

It was nice to be reminded she wasn't alone on this. That was usually the only thing that helped keep her going some days. She would've thanked him for the support, if he didn't grow a bit more dour in his next sentence, his face grimacing somewhat.

"I'll be honest with you, McKay," he confessed. "I wasn't sure of you at first. While I appreciated your loyalty, I wasn't certain if you could handle things. Half your unit hated you and this was your first real command position with no oversight. The deck was more than a little stacked against you. In some ways it still is."

She wouldn't argue with that, he was right. She didn't know if she had been ready for this. Hell, she had a ton of doubts and none of them had really gone away yet. All she kept thinking about since the start of all this was how long before her Helljumpers stopped listening to her. What would be the straw they couldn't take? All she knew was that she couldn't second guess herself, she had to project command. In many ways she succeeded, but not completely.

"I know I still have a long way to go, Lieutenant," McKay assured him. "I've told myself the same things-"

"Let me finish," Haverson interrupted, putting up his hand. "I thought all that once, but you've been proving me wrong. You've kept this unit together despite everything being against you. Yesterday proved it. You took command, not just of your unit but of two separate squads of different aliens. You led them in a coordinated assault on an enemy position. That's astounding for any commanding officer in any respect."

"To be fair," McKay was quick to point out. "It was more of a joint effort. I rallied the Jackals and Batarians to us, but they remained under the direct command of their own superiors. I simply gave them direction best I could and helped formulate strategy alongside them."

"Nevertheless, you still performed admirably under extreme circumstances," Haverson informed her proudly. "Colonel Holland and I have taken note of this and it has put things into a better sense of understanding for us."

Now she had no idea what this was about. Although she did like knowing that her direct superiors seemed to finally recognize the pressure she was under. At the very least it sounded like Holland wanted to offer more support. She had no idea what exactly she could do to better assist her, but she was open to suggestion.

"We don't want the ODSTs as a potential adversarial force," Haverson explained. "We want them to accept that our mission remains the same, despite working with Covenant deserters. In our opinion, one way to do that, is to give you more authority and standing."

For McKay, that could only mean one thing.

"Lieutenant... are you..."

"Neither Holland or I are actually in a position to make it official yet," Haverson clarified. "I can't promote someone over my rank and he's not Navy. However, we can formally deputize someone through emergency provisions. Considering the situation, those said provisions are applicable here. We'd still technically need to officiate the process through a direct Naval Officer, but the title will still hold regardless. So, by the authority invested in me and Colonel Holland, we have decided to promote you to Captain."

McKay stood their speechless, trying to reason what Haverson was saying. Promotion to Captain? Yes, under emergency provision, it wasn't technically official, but it meant she had to be addressed by that title. It meant she had all the powers said rank possessed and all the respect afforded to it. Buck had suggested before that this could happen, but she had written it off. She didn't think Holland was confident enough in her abilities to do this.

Eventually it sunk in, this was really happening. She was Captain McKay now, for all intents and purposes that was her rank.

"I don't know what to say," she admitted. "I'm honored."

"Of course, it's not much of a promotion if there's no teeth to it," he explained to her. "So officially, in the field, you now have effective command over any Marines or Army personnel. That should give you more support should things get rough. You'll also have authority to induct promising Marines into the ODST ranks, at least temporarily. You'll also effectively be a greater fixture in the command structure, although to be honest you already were, this just means you'll play a key role in any strategy discussions."

It wasn't much, but it was something. She'd have greater authority, she'd have the ability to bring in people who would be on her side. She'd be able to tip the scales more in her favor, pull her wight more among her men. Best of all, she'd be able to plan missions alongside the other units. Everyone, even Lendon, would be forced to recognize she was in charge, this was her plan, her mission and anyone questioning it was being insubordinate and could be disciplined. It was something, more than she had the other day at least in those tunnels.

"I'm honored," she finally stated. "I take this position, emergency provision or no, with reverence and respect."

"I wouldn't expect anything less, Captain," Haverson said, placing greater emphasis on the final word.

The ONI agent then looked around slightly, before leaning in closely. His tone and posture had shifted, less military, more clandestine.

"There's another reason I pushed this through," he explained. "McKay, what is your honest opinion about the Jackals and Batarians, after working directly with them?"

"They're far less disciplined, but manageable," she answered. "The Jackals are more unruly, but they're easy enough to move in the direction you want. The batarians are a bit more like us, they have a greater sense of duty and practicality. I may not always be a fan, but I can work with them."

"I didn't think you couldn't, we wouldn't be talking right now otherwise," Haverson clarified. "The truth is, I'm as wary of this Alliance as anyone. For the time being, I want it to work. It offers us insight into the mindset of our enemies, which I've found invaluable even if the Jackals themselves are infuriating. That's why we need good officers now more than ever."

She didn't really follow, but McKay let him keep talking. From the sound of it, her promotion had some off the record responsibilities.

"We need to project to our people that we're not doing their dirty work, that we're the ones using them," Haverson explained further. "A more stable command structure helps in that way. This gives you greater authority and standing over the Jackals in the field. We need you to show people that we're in charge, that this our OP, that the Jackals are lucky to take part. Not the other way around. None of us wants another mutiny."

"I understand completely, I feel the same way," McKay agreed.

"Good, because I think this artifact recovery is just the first of many we're going to end up chasing," Haverson informed her. "We need to project authority over the Jackals if that's the case."

"I don't think they want to be controlled by anyone though," McKay cautioned.

"Exactly," Haverson concurred. "But you've already fought with them and according to my studies they respect females more by proxy in general. You have a rapport in a sense. We have a way of making them pay us back for all these little favors, McKay. Holland wants you to be ready when the time comes to implement it."

If McKay was being honest, she'd have preferred to stay out of the fleet politics. She had her concerns with this Alliance, specifically the longevity, but mostly she just wanted to get her people home. That included even mutineers like Lendon, no matter how much they hated her. If working with Jackals helped accomplish that, fine by her. She understood Haverson's point though. Her unit was growing more and more frustrated, seemingly acting like errand boys for Zek's agenda. She'd prefer to have an example of the Jackals doing something for them for once. If only to show that she hadn't sold them out to the enemy like they constantly claimed. If that meant dipping into politics a bit, fine. She just hoped she was up for it.

"Tell Holland I'll be ready whenever he needs me," McKay assured Haverson confidently. "Just find me a mission and I'll get my people on it."

"Good to know," Haverson told her. "I better let you go now, Captain. I'll make sure Holland is aware of your answer."

Haverson left, saluting McKay as he did. She returned the gesture and went back to Buck, eager to share the good news. For once, things seemed to be looking up. Captain, she still hardly believed it. She wished Silva had been around to see it. Part of her hoped he'd have been proud of her, but there was no sense in dwelling on what ifs. She had work to do, and it all started right now. Holland had put his trust in her, everyone would be looking to her. She would not fail them, not if she could help it.

* * *

"An ancient pirate warlord who sacked heaven?" Tali repeated, baffled by the very words she herself was speaking at that moment. "A magic sword that can tear space/time? This... this is real? Seriously?"

Perhaps it wasn't entirely prudent to bother Tali with all this while she was working in engineering. Telling her some old space pirate story was the last thing on her mind, especially when she was buried in work from the looks of it. Unfortunately, Shepard was on a bit of a timetable himself and he needed to talk to the only person he knew who could even remotely help. Her reaction did not really sound like what he wanted though.

"According to Taq," Shepard shrugged. "To be fair, Earth has it's share of crazy myths. Like, some people once believed the world rode on the back of a giant turtle."

"Yes, and then you got to space and found out how stupid that was," Tali responded, at this point laughing at the overall absurdity. "Ancient Quarian Legends told of a vicious desert monster that was surrounded by a perpetual sandstorm that guarded the entrance to the Land of the Ancestors. They also believed that Rannoch's moon was home to an ancient underground city of celestial entities that controlled the heavens. Not every myth has a basis in fact, some of it's just fever dreams the shaman had when he ate the wrong kind of plants."

"Some would probably say they used the 'right' kind of plants," Shepard cheekily corrected.

"You know what I mean," Tali replied flatly. "This legend sounds like it was made up by someone with a very over-active imagination and too much time on their hands. Specifically something made up by that weirdo addict who keeps calling in to BBR."

Tali wasn't always the most skeptical of people out there, she was quick to believe the Reapers were real along with the rest of his crew all those years ago. However, he had to admit, the more he tried to make this insane story seem sensible the less it did. He couldn't exactly deny how overly fantastical it was and the song itself didn't really help, even when you only spoke the lyrics.

"I have my own doubts," Shepard assured her. "But Taq seems to be convinced this is a legit lead and she's pursuing it. We've encountered plenty of weird stuff, Tali. We're not in that much of a position to claim this is the least believable, especially if it's connected to the Forerunners."

"I'm not saying it doesn't exist," Tali explained. "I'm just saying it's a bit hasty to jump to conclusions based on an old pirate song and a weird looking picture. The Forerunners were clearly picking up something, I'll give it that much, but an Astral Cutlass is a little too much to buy into right now."

"Just ignore the song and all the crazy junk in it about star forges and burning fleets," Shepard pleaded. "I know you're not the biggest expert on the Forerunners, but you've been studying Slipspace for awhile and you're the most knowledgeable person currently in this fleet about this subject outside of Taq. The difference being, you're more objective than she is right now. Could the Forerunners do this?"

Tali sighed, finally turning completely away from her console and towards him.

"Any other day with any other person I wouldn't bother," she relented. "You're lucky I'm your girlfriend and I've been busy with the Slipspace drive anyway. So I got a few thoughts running through my head right now."

She led Shepard to the front of the engine room, to the section where they could view the drive core. Currently, the Huragok, or Engineers, were floating about it. They examining the core, fiddling with it, testing and prodding the device with their tentacles.

"They're currently trying to get our hyperdrive integrated with the Slipspace drive," she explained. "There are a few more complications, but they're working through the problem. They seem to be getting a handle on how to start merging technologies together. I've let Garrus use them to help with his weapons modification project as practice."

"Good to hear we're finally making progress, Holland will like that," Shepard noted.

"I hope so, I'd like to actually get more than a couple hours of sleep already," Tali groaned. "I've been working on this forever, it would be nice to finally be done so I can show some results. My reputation as an engineer is on the line here. At the very least, the recent developments have given me insights into Slipspace technology more than ever. Which leads me to your questions. The short answer is, yes, the Forerunners had advanced knowledge of Slipspace. Enough to likely travel around the galaxy instantly."

Well that was at least good to hear, but knowing Tali there was more to it than that.

"So what's the long answer?" He asked simply.

"I got a better look at the system schematics for their engines on the _Dauntless_ ," she began reverently. "Honestly, even in the current state it is in, I can tell it was immensely complicated. You're not just dealing with faster than light travel or passing through dimensions. We're talking folds within folds in space/time. What could take us days or weeks and the UNSC years, would've at times been nothing more than hours, sometimes minutes. It makes the Mass Effect Relays back home look like clunky obsolete eyesores that haven't been upgraded in eons."

"I recall that being kinda the point," Shepard reminded her.

That was because the Reapers had made the Relays. Their form of control, as far as Shepard knew anyway. It was to keep the level of technology within their accepted limits. Why bother coming up with faster methods of travel when a Mass Relay could get you where you needed to be in a few short hours? The Forerunner had obviously avoided that problem.

"Yes, I can only imagine what society would've been like if we had bothered to innovate instead of relying solely on the Relays," Tali concurred. "The point is though, the Forerunners used massive ships to travel. Their technology wasn't just based on a single piece of tech. It required hundreds if not thousands of working parts. That's what I've discovered, they had a way to navigate the dimensional pathways of Slipspace. It allowed them to make precision jumps. Couple that with their advanced power sources and matter alteration tech, they were able to cut through Slipspace with breakneck speed."

"So what you're saying it's highly complicated," Shepard reasoned. "We're talking more than just being able to boost through space at the speed of light or something."

"I've been able to work around the problem with mass effect fields reducing overall weight and gravity," Tali explained. "The Forerunners didn't need that, they could just open a rift, blast through and alter their ship for optimum travel. Even so, they couldn't just appear out of nowhere. And I don't see how a sword and whatever these relics do somehow makes you able to zip around the universe in a fraction of a second. Let alone pull an entire fleet along with you and rip ships apart at the same time."

"Taq suggested the legend might be overly exaggerated," Shepard reminded her. "It could just be a really impressive ship. Maybe one that makes wormholes?"

"Possible," Tali relented. "Are you saying...?"

"If the Wormhole was created in our dimension, I doubt the Astral Cutlass actually cut into it from this side," Shepard clarified. "I'm just saying, that might be what it's actually doing. Creating wormholes into Slipspace maybe."

"That would make sense, but it's still pretty farfetched," Tali cautioned. "Whatever this Cutlass is, literal or not, we're talking about a device that bends space and time on a level that was even above the Forerunners' abilities. If it does exist, it might not do everything it's claimed to be capable of."

"But the chance it might seems to be enough for kig-yar to go chasing after it," Shepard stated plainly. "And the slim chance it actually can do everything the song claims is enough to make me worried about it. We knew less about what the Conduit was and it turned out to be a big deal. All I'm saying is, we've been through enough to know that some legends have a lot of truth to them."

Tali leaned back against the railing a bit, crossing her arms as she did.

"We have seen some pretty amazing things," she admitted. "And I won't discount this entirely. It's clear the Forerunners were trying to gather something before they left for our universe. It might very well be this Cutlass. All I'm saying is, try not to let a crazy pirate story oversell this for you."

It was good advice, and honestly it was probably the best way to play this. Holland would not go for a mission based on fanciful stories. He'd want concrete facts, one they could objectively prove. Ultimately though, Shepard had to be honest with himself and Tali.

"Truth is, this isn't really about those relics," he confessed. "Not entirely."

"I figured," said Tali rather simply. "It's about the Master Chief, about Reach."

"He lost his team down there, his family," Shepard said wistfully. "He deserves to know what happened to them. I want to help him get that closure."

"Same old Wade Shepard," Tali chuckled in a good-natured way. "Always trying to sort out other people's problems at your expense."

"It's what you love about me," he shrugged back at her.

Tali just giggled at that.

"This is true," she admitted. "And you're right, he does deserve closure. Halsey's journal covers his time as a Spartan extensively. Blue Team were really his closest familial connection of any kind. He has Linda now, but he was equally close to the others from the sound of things."

All the more reason to find them, even if they weren't alive. Shepard knew Chief well enough by now that he knew the man could handle that. He could move on. The not knowing was killing him more and he needed to resolve that for him somehow. It was then Tali moved over to delicately place a hand on his shoulder.

"The thing is, Shepard, Chief wasn't the only one who lost friends on that planet," she warned. "Kat, Jun... Legion, Reach left a lot of scars on all of them. Some more literal than others and they're still fresh. If we go there, it's going to be more than a little personal for them and others in this fleet."

"I know," Shepard acknowledged. "I also know, probably better than most, that facing your demons is better than running from them."

"I'm only saying this because Kat is my friend and Legion is my responsibility," Tali explained. "They will want to go down there, Wade. They'll want in on this, I know it. I don't want you to stop them, they probably need this as much Chief does. Just, please, make sure you know what you're getting into here and know what they're going to need from you."

This was why he had come to Tali. No matter what, she always had some much needed perspective. At times, even he forgot the larger picture. Knowing he had someone like her to help remind him of that was important. Of course this was bigger than Chief. Kat and Jun lost their whole team, Legion lost the first real friend they had ever made. Countless soldiers and Marines had lost much of the same. This would be an emotional step for everyone. Knowing that was important, as he suspected that would be one of Holland's concerns as well.

"Thanks," he told Tali. "I'll keep that in mind, I promise."

Tali beamed at him for a moment, before stepping back slightly and clutching at her head a little with a small groan. Shepard instantly moved towards her concerned.

"You alight?" He asked.

"Sorry, headaches," she said reassuringly. "Probably because I haven't been sleeping much. They come and go, some are sharper than others. But I'm okay, I just need to get this done."

"You sure it's nothing serious?" He asked. "Did your suit breech recently? You haven't caught something have you?"

"I checked with Chakwas, I'm fine, honest," Tali insisted. "I just think I'm a bit overworked, that's all."

"Well, maybe you should take a break then," Shepard offered. "Let Donnelly and Daniels take over for a bit. You could use a little more sleep."

"I am on the cusp of a breakthrough here thanks to the Huragok," Tali stated firmly. "I can't just sleep. Besides, when I wake up I feel like my head is racing sometimes."

"That might be because you're not getting enough and you're forcing yourself awake," Shepard offered. "Look, a day off is not going to kill you or this project. You got to look after yourself too, you know."

Tali just sighed.

"Fine, I'll turn over my current notes to Donnelly and Daniels," Tali relented. "I'll get some sleep for a cycle, but when it's over I'm back on this. I want to get this done so I can get back to work on fixing Legion's glitch."

"And you say I put too much pressure on myself sometimes," he laughed. "You really need a 'Me Day' once in a while."

Tali bawked at the notion.

"Quarians don't do 'Me Days', Shepard," she joked. "That's probably grounds for treason on the Flotilla. Besides, I know your game. You just want me to clear my schedule entirely so you have an excuse to get me in your cabin for a whole evening."

"Do I honestly need one at this point?" Shepard asked grinning.

"Hmm, no," Tali admitted slyly. "Not really. But it's more fun when you're forced to follow my timetable."

"I'm the Captain," Shepard reminded her jovially. "Don't I have some control over my crew's lives?"

"Yes, but I'm your girlfriend," Tali reminded him brushing her finger under his chin. "I reassert some level of control by default."

She made her back down the corridor to the main room of the engine bay.

"I'll get some rest and see you in a few hours," she told him. "Let me know how things with Holland went."

"Will do," Shepard assured her.

At the very least, he now had an idea of how to play his discussion with Holland. He hoped it would be easier to sell him on pursuing these relics than he thought. Covering every base beforehand was a good start though. He soon left Engineering himself, it was time to see Holland and settle this matter.

* * *

Sitting in his chair on the bridge of the _Fallen Serpent_ , Zek looked out at the expanse of space. Although the fleet was still in orbit above the _Dauntless'_ crash site for the time being, he was already looking ahead. What was supposed to be a huge payday for him had turned into quite possibly the biggest treasure hunt of all time. He couldn't help but feel excited. Maybe that was why he was so quick to suggest taking the _Serpent_ out on a patrol of the system. Haverson was still concerned about the possibility of the Covenant or other pirates showing up while they prepared to get underway again. Running lookout while they recovered all they could from the ancient wreck was the best solution to that concern.

Truthfully though, Zek had volunteered purely to better contemplate the road ahead and what it could mean for all of them. Despite all the business ventures he had in the works currently, it was only now he had a clear sizable major goal in mind. One that was beyond just trying to squeak out a sustainable income. The Astral Cutlass was real. He didn't care how skeptical Shepard or the other humans felt, the Cutlass was real! That alone was crazy enough, but to have a way to find it was another. His mind just couldn't stop thinking about the implications.

"This is better than we could've hoped for," he told Retz, as he looked out at the stars. "It's not just a ton of creds anymore, we're looking at something huge."

"If the Cutlass is all it's claimed to be," Retz cautioned, looking over from his viewscreen.

"If it's even a tenth of what the legends say, it's worth going after," Zek argued. "Please don't tell me you don't think it's real either."

"I think we have found the truth behind the legend, potentially at least," Retz confessed. "However, I know more than most that when you look behind the curtain it's not always as exciting as you think it is. All I'm saying is, we can't just assume we're going to find a weapon capable of doing everything an old song claims it can do."

"It doesn't have to be everything," Zek claimed. "It just has to be at least one of those things. Think about the instant transportation of ships, no more smugglers routes needed, no more stops. Every raid a surprise, every ambush escapable. You'd want to go somewhere and you could get there with a ton of ships easy! It would be a new Golden Age, Retz! A Golden Age of Space Piracy!"

"All very tempting," Retz agreed. "And I'd love to see that happen myself. But while I love a good legend as much as the next, we should focus on what we know for certain for four Relics are highly prized by several parties, for one reason or another. We play this right, Zek, and we might just get what we originally wanted. The UNSC will have to recognize our talents if we help them get these potential weapons. We'll finally have some standing to make a profitable contract with them. One that keeps us out of the war, but still pays well enough."

"I know, I know," Zek concurred, raising his hand. "It's what we all want. I'm just thinking about our long term future if this Cutlass thing pans out. If Taq says it's real, I trust her judgment."

"As do I," Retz assured. "I'm just telling you not to get tunnel vision here. We have to be open to every angle. Not just focus on legends that might not be all they're cracked up to be. That's just good business sense, really."

Zek couldn't deny Retz had a point. He had his hopes pinned already on the sugar smuggling, on weapons trading, robbing rich ports, hijacking convoys laden with precious goods and perhaps getting in on the Underground Ichor trade. These were more or less safer bets, save maybe the sugar which they still needed to find a source of the real stuff and avoid having the UNSC find out about it until it was firmly established. Everything else though was simple, easy, common practice pirate stuff. It wouldn't make him powerful, it wouldn't make him infamous, but any of them would be a good starting point. You establish a business line, you turn a profit, you build a fleet that can protect you and said businesses from reprisal. That's how you survived in a galaxy run by the Covenant.

The Astral Cutlass though? That was how a pirate overturned all the rules. How he became more than just a fleet, a brand or an infamous outlaw all the sangheili cursed aloud. No, the Cutlass was how you became THE Space Pirate. How you became legend. This was the fast-track to fortune and glory, where no one could touch you. He'd be an idiot if he let that chance slip by him so easily. It would probably be the safe thing to do, but you didn't get anywhere playing it safe. He had learned that the hard way under the Covenant's grip.

As these thoughts swarmed in Zek's mind, the door to the bridge opened up. Taq strode in, busy overlooking a newly installed omni-tool on her arm. She seemed rather pleased, which was always a good thing. It meant Zek could probably hold a conversation with her that wouldn't end in her screaming at him for some reason.

"It seems the humans are able to actually follow my cataloging system, despite their militaristic attitudes, they aren't complete dullards," she stated. "So far, they've transported over half the artifacts we located from the _Dauntless_ up to the _Ascendant Justice_. Faster than I thought, remarkably efficient. I imagine Haverson has a role in that."

"Hey don't give him too much," Zek grumbled at her. "He wasn't down there risking his ass like the rest of us."

"As long as he gets the artifacts up to the fleet, I don't really care where he was," Taq explained simply. "I appreciate people who take this work seriously, nothing more."

"Yeah, whatever, he's still a total prick," Zek mumbled under his breath.

"And have I mentioned I am loving this omni-tool?" She asked aloud. "Multi-purpose functions, so many things one can do at once. I can see why Shepard's entire crew has at least one. I've already used it to run several deep data dives into Forerunner data modules and they all completed within the hour. How did I live without this?"

"Did any of those modules have anything to say about the Cutlass?" Zek asked expectantly.

Taq just sighed, her disposition becoming slightly less chipper.

"Sadly no, but they did have a lot of information concerning the Forerunner's resettlement plan," she replied. "I sent some of the most pertinent data to Commander Shepard. He expressed certain interest in it for some reason. Says he might need to talk to me about it later when he has time. Not sure why, but I told him I'd be happy to help. I'm mostly just surprised he has taken an interest."

"You'll find that the Commander has a very wide range of interests," Retz informed her. "Specifically concerning the Forerunners. It has to do with a colleague he has back in his home dimension as I understand it."

"I'd prefer we focus on this dimension for now," Zek insisted. "Specifically the Cutlass and how we find it."

"Well it relies on Shepard convincing Holland to start tracking the relevant relics down," Taq reminded him. "For now, all we can do is wait and hope that they take my arguments to heart. That if the Syndicate and Snarlbeak both believe the Cutlass is real, that's worth investigating."

At that moment, Taq looked specifically at Retz, her tone becoming more inquisitive.

"Any idea HOW the Syndicate found out about the Cutlass in the first place, Retz?" She asked. "You must have some idea."

"I'm in the dark as much as you," he assured her. "The Syndicate is always concerned with maintaining the status quo. It is likely they discovered Snarlbeak's intention via a mole within his own organization. Given how he's grown his fleet so quickly over the years, he's been a bit of a concern. It is clear though that this is why they sent those assassins after you. There's no doubt in my mind anymore on that front. As for their goal, the Syndicate likely isn't taking a chance on this Cutlass being real or not. If it does exist, they'll want it for themselves if only to ensure it is not used against them."

"But how did Snarlbeak figure it out?" Zek asked curiously. "Did Zhoc piece it together from some wall pictures or an old book or something?"

"I was running a lot errands for him just to make ends meet," Taq explained. "It's possible he was looking for leads on a Forerunner weapon or the Cutlass itself when he sent me out. He wants something to help grow his criminal empire, that's a clear enough. I must have found something that made him start focusing on the Cutlass specifically. I can't be sure, his contracts always requested I not look at any of the data I found. It's obvious to me now, he knew I'd figure out what he was hunting and I'd go after it myself."

"Well, he pegged you there pretty good at least," Zek noted with a chuckle. "You could never resist the call of a good treasure hunt."

"Discovery, Zek, knowledge, that is its own treasure," Taq corrected, before her tone became more evasive. "And a few creds on the side never hurt of course. But pursuit of knowledge is first and foremost... that and getting a private island, maybe."

Zek hid his grin best he could. Taq could deny it all she wanted, but she had a bit of pirate in her. It was clear enough she was loving this whole thing. Maybe not his company, but she liked being back with the _Serpent_ in a sense. That was a good enough start for now.

"Zhoc must know this is a dangerous game he is playing though," Retz suggested. "The Syndicate won't abide by these attempts to overshadow them. The closer he gets, the more they'll try to put him down. They're already wary of the power and influence he currently holds."

"Well maybe that plays in our favor," Zek postulated. "They'll be too busy killing each other to bother with us."

"They have enough ships between them that they can spare a few to handle our tiny little flotilla," Retz warned. "We go after the Cutlass, we're not going to be able to stay out of their way for very long. Honestly, Holland and Haverson are right to be a little worried. Hell, if I were in their shoes, I'd probably have put more people on this security patrol."

"You think Snarlbeak or the Syndicate will find this place?" Taq asked. "Even without the data module we used?"

"I don't underestimate opponents, especially not ones like Snarlbeak," Retz stated firmly. "They'll narrow down our position eventually and they won't even need a tracker aboard to do it. Knowing Zhoc, he'll fall back on classic pursuit tactics to pick up our trail. And whatever he knows it is likely the Syndicate soon will as well."

Retz's dire warning was soon met by an interruption from below.

"Sirs, long range sensors have picked up something on the edge of the system," one of the techies reported. "Could be nothing, but it seems like a minor slipspace rupture."

Zek looked to Retz and could see his concern had only grown. Taking his friend's previous warning into consideration, he knew there was only one course of action.

"Is our cloak holding steady?" He asked the tech.

"Hundred percent, sir," he assured. "The repairs we made seem to be working just fine."

"Move in on an intercept course," Zek ordered. "Low, slow and quiet. We don't know what this is, we need to confirm before we take any action."

* * *

Holland sat as Haverson stood beside him, looking at both Shepard and the Master Chief thoughtfully. They had come to report on what exactly they had found in the Forerunner wreck. Needless to say it was a lot to soak in. Ancient swords, pirate warlords, the sacking of heaven, had he had not been on Halo just a few days prior it all would've sounded insane. Now, it just sounded like another layer of crazy that was the history of the Forerunners. Not that he instantly believed any of it, but it was hard to swallow.

As was the idea that if they wanted to get to this Astral Cutlass they would have to go back to Reach. There were several reasons he was uncomfortable with that plan. It was just to think precisely where to start.

"I'm not saying I don't want to prevent the Covenant from getting their hands on this relic," he expressed plainly. "But what are the chances it's even there anymore?"

"The Covenant would not risk glassing the a relic of their Gods, sir," Shepard explained. "They'd want to preserve it."

"Assuming they haven't already found and acquired said relic," Haverson warned. "And chances are high that they have. I mean, they've had the run of the planet so far."

"Yes, but in our experience that's not always enough," Shepard reminded them. "Cortana, can explain."

The AI appeared from the Master Chief's omni-tool with a stoic expression.

"The Covenant on Halo had problems activating several systems that should've been easy for them to open," she began. "For some reason, the systems lock them out. It takes sheer brute force just to get anywhere. The Relic could still be secure, just beyond their reach, but impossible to get to for the moment. Now, that could change and soon, but there's nothing to suggest it has. Even if the Covenant have managed to take the Relic by now, we might be able to find enough residual clues left behind that we could track them."

"Even with the planet glassed?" Haverson asked.

"Glassing is only really going to do so much," Cortana corrected. "Anything below the surface is going to have to be destroyed directly and the Covenant may hesitate to do that to a holy site. We may have a very limited window of opportunity we should exploit."

"There's still nothing to suggest the window hasn't closed already," Holland stated frankly. "I know I agreed before about hunting down these relics and keeping them out of Covenant hands if possible. I'm aware that this is important to your friend back home as well, Shepard. But the fact is, we might be headed into clearly hostile territory on a lead that might already be dead. Just like the planet it is on. We may be better served trying to pick up the trail elsewhere, perhaps going after one of the other planets."

"I agree we can't assume, but it goes both ways, sir," Shepard informed him. "Until we actually go to the system to check the planet out, we can't be certain the relic is gone. If nothing else, we can go to the cluster and the _Normandy_ can travel the system to check things out first."

"It just seems too risky," Holland argued. "Even with all our men, this carrier is not at full capacity. Cortana could man the guns to defend us, but she can't do everything herself. Even if we just send you, you'd be flying into a system that is probably still occupied by an enemy fleet, however small it might be."

"Sir, if I may," the Master Chief suddenly cut in. "There is another reason we should go to Reach anyway. Right now, it's the perfect place to hide for a bit."

That got Holland's attention.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Reach has already been discovered by the Covenant," the Spartan explained. "We wouldn't be violating the Cole Protocol by going there. And even if there is a token Covenant presence, we can avoid them. The Covenant themselves would not expect us to go back to Reach. And we all know how rigid Covenant thinking is. We've seen how they limit their own tech, they wouldn't be expecting us to show up again. More importantly, even if the Relic isn't there, UNSC assets within the system may still be functional. We could potentially recover any supplies and equipment we need."

"And the various Pirates on our tails would pause a moment to weigh the risks of entering a hostile Covenant-Controlled system," Cortana added. "With the right jump plan we could get in without making too much of a fuss and do a covert scan for any anomalies. Depending on what we find we can act appropriately. Either way, we'd be right under the Covies' nose. Hell, we'd probably be able assess the threat to Earth when you think about it. Reach is a likely launching point for an invasion, glassed or not."

Holland turned to Haverson, who himself seemed a bit less adverse than before.

"There might be some assets in need of recovery," he admitted. "Ones the Covenant might not have found yet. And Cortana is right, this might be a decent excuse to spy on the enemy, gather intelligence for a possible invasion of Earth."

Holland clasped his hands together and hummed under his breath.

"Alright, I see your points," he admitted. "But we cannot frame this as a mission to go help the Jackals with their treasure hunt. Until we know more, the relic is not a primary."

"Don't worry, sir," Haverson assured him. "I think I can help with that perception. There's an opportunity here I believe we can exploit."

"What kind of opportunity?" Shepard asked curiously.

"Let's just say I'm considering calling in a favor from some of our friends. Think of it as payment for services we've rendered," Haverson stated with a rather sly grin. "I'm sure being the business men they are, they'll understand my conditions."

With that Holland nodded.

"Alright, we'll begin preparations for the jump to Reach," he declared. "But it will take time to get there regardless."

"All the more time to plan things," Shepard declared. "Thank you, sir. I promise you won't regret this decision."

Chief and the Commander began to leave, when Holland called out to the Spartan.

"Master Chief," he said with a slightly raised tone. "I respect the way you came to me with this, but just know something. I lost good people on that planet. Good people who died more or less on my orders. I've come accept that burden, but it's a hard one to bare regardless. I hope you find what you need on Reach, Chief. I really do. Just... don't go hoping for miracles."

The Spartan just turned back and nodded slightly before leaving with the Commander. Holland settled back in his chair and sighed. The enormity of his decision slowly hitting. They were going back to where this whole mess started. A lot of wounds were going to be opened because of that. He hoped that none of them would be fatal.

* * *

The main galley rang with the sounds of hungry space pirates and old 20th Century rock. If Jack could say one thing about BBR, it was that its DJ played the gamut of sub-genres, they weren't tied down to just heavy metal. Boz had apparently found the "Creedence Clearwater Revival" file and had been steadily going through each song Joker had so lovingly cataloged within it. It was easy listening, not Jack's style, but after all the shit that had gone down in that damn ghost ship, she didn't mind the less aggressive, laid back music.

Thane was okay with it though. In fact, the Drell was damn near entranced by the sounds. Maybe it was stirring up some memories, although he wasn't doing his usual freaky recall thing that much. He was sitting across from her at their table, casually eating some fruit snacks he had brought over. Their pirate friends did not have an "agreeable menu" according to him. Given a lot of it involved some kind of thick stew, he was probably right.

Jack would be damned though if she skipped out on drinking their Ichor. She had a reputation to maintain and she wasn't about to let dainty little Kasumi outclass her. If that thief could hold down space whale bile, so could she. Another good thing about the current music though was that it made for good drinking music. Another point in its favor.

The Jackals had taken a shine to CCR as well, although that was probably because the music wasn't intrusive enough to interrupt their varied conversations on the subject of the day. For the past hour, all Jack had heard was "Cutlass this" and "Cutlass that", on and on and over and over. It was all any of these crazy birds wanted to talk about it seemed. Besides becoming a bit boring though, it did suggest to her that this sword thing was a big friggin deal for these guys. Probably some kind of Jackal Excalibur from the sound of everything.

What that ultimately meant for her though was less about ancient fairy tales and more about what they'd inevitably be pursuing next. Chances were Shepard was already making plans to go after this thing. Which meant more trouble for them in the long run, something she'd come to expect by now.

"You just know we're going to run into some major shit before this little treasure hunt is over," she mused aloud.

"Have we not already encountered such?" Thane asked, looking over to her. "I think those crawlers qualify."

"Those things are the usual crazy we run into," she argued. "I'm talking about legitimate scary as fuck shit. As in galactic consequences for failure shit. Honestly, a ship full of crazy robots I can deal with. All the other crap we run into is what really starts to pile on after a while."

She took a swig from her ichor glass and forced the hard taste down. It was obviously acquired, but it was getting there. Really it was more texture than the taste at this point. It still felt like slime more than beer.

"I mean, you hear what they keep saying right?" She asked Thane insistently. "A sword that can plunder heaven? Holy fuck, that's insane."

"The implications are troubling," Thane admitted. "A weapon with such power would be unmatched by anything in our current arsenal."

"And the weird thing is, I can't even outright call it bullshit anymore," Jack frantically added. "A few months ago, sure. Now? Like I said, just another fucking crazy thing on the shit pile we've encountered."

She sighed greatly and laid her head back.

"Isn't this just our luck?" She asked. "We sign on for a suicide mission and we end up on some mythical quest for a magical sword. And you just know, Shepard probably has taken all this in and is just shrugging at it all. Because fuck it, right? After you blow up a ring world, what's finding a fucking badass ancient sword?"

"When you put it like that it almost sounds like some kind of cosmic fairy tale," Thane noted.

"Do the creepy crawly robots count as rats then?" Jack asked sarcastically. "Because if they do, then we've already hit all the cliches from the get go at this point."

As she took another swig, her mind started going off on a random tangent. The whole conversation about myths and old stories, it sparked something in her head, a curiosity. Maybe it was from socializing with Thane too much, maybe it was the feeling of being left out of the conversations the Jackals were having. Either way, something was nagging at her now and she wanted it dealt with.

"What kind of freaky myths do Drell have?" She asked Thane inquisitively. "Any crazy powerful swords in your legends?"

To his credit, Thane didn't ask where the question had come from. He was good like that, he didn't bother trying to probe her for reasons. He just tried his best to answer, half the time Shepard answered questions with his own questions. Thane just took a moment to think, his mind probably trying to recall a memory or something.

"Hmm, I don't think swords were huge in our old stories," Thane admitted. "Admittedly, not many Drell specific myths are left. We lost a lot of them back when we pushed our planet to the brink and were forced to leave."

"Oh, right," Jack remembered, now suddenly feeling like a heel. "Your homeworld got super polluted and you had to book. I forgot about that."

"I wasn't alive back then, I can't miss something what was lost that long ago," he reminded her. "Besides, it's not like I can't go back. Many Drell visit the planet to connect with their roots, but there's not much left to look at or reason to stay. Just dead desert, probably will be like that forever."

"What about terraforming?" Jack asked. "Couldn't you just fix it that way?"

"That would require more Drell to really put the issue forward and for the Hanar to put resources into it," Thane explained despondently. "It's not really something that is high on anyone's agenda. We've lived together for too long. Become too accustomed to our new home on Kahje."

Jack supposed she could sorta understand that. She had never known her own home. Not the facility on Pragia, her real home, with her real parents who no doubt believed she was dead, whoever they were. Early on, she had thought about finding them and going back, but after so many years away she decided, "fuck it." It wouldn't be home even if she went there, she didn't know it, she didn't know the people in it and part of her didn't want to. They had buried their grief when they thought she had died, no sense in digging it all back up again. Better to think they moved on or died somehow, easier that way.

"Did you go back yourself?" Jack asked him cautiously.

"Once... with my wife," he answered, his voice a bit more tempered.

As he spoke, his eyes went distant and his hands went still. He wasn't looking at anything now, just straight ahead, completely out of it. In the next moment he began speaking in an almost trance-like tone.

"Bleached desert, searing sun warms skin. Smell of desolation, hot sand, blistering wind. Arid lifeless wastes stretch out, crumbling temple spires pointing skyward. She takes my hands. Ushers me in. This was what we were, she says. What we threw away. She cries, I can't help it. I'm moved to hug her, feel her, comfort her."

He eventually came out of it and looked back to Jack. Her expression had turned to one of regret. What just happened was her fault.

"Sorry," she told him sadly. "I... I didn't mean to make you remember that."

"It's alright," he assured her. "That one is not a bad memory. It is one experience I often remember. She brought me there on something of a pilgrimage. She wanted to offer perspective, show me our history in the flesh as it were. She felt it was important, to remember all we were."

"Was she big on history then?" Jack asked.

"She was more inclined to culture than history actually," he explained. "Getting back to your original question. She told me a few old stories that used to be a part of our people back then. Stories of dark desert caverns where one could find paths to lost cities beneath the surface, a paradise guarded by vicious creatures meant to be their guardians."

"Like Atlantis but for mole people?" Jack asked, trying to stifle a chuckle.

Thane just shrugged.

"In a sense, probably not as exciting as magic swords though," he stated. "But it was more a myth for the adventurous than anything else."

The drell suddenly looked away wistfully.

"That day on our homeworld, with her," he said forlornly. "It was when I knew."

"Knew what?" Jack questioned softly.

"That I loved her," he admitted. "That I loved her and I never wanted to let her go."

Jack looked away slightly, now she really felt terrible. Even if he liked remembering her, it still seemed to hurt. She could tell. This was why she tried to forget her past a lot. It hurt too much, and it made her weak and stupid when it did. Thane didn't have that option though. He couldn't forget. Yet, for whatever reason, it didn't make him weak, just the opposite. He kept fighting, even with his disease, he kept going. He didn't seem to let anything get to him. Or at least he tried to.

"My memories are all I have left of her now," he said forlornly. "Them and my son. And I'll probably never see him again."

Jack felt like there was knife in her gut at that moment. It was then she did something she didn't usually do. She moved closer to him, leaning over the table.

"Hey, don't say that," she told him firmly. "King Boy Scout is on this. We'll find a way home, you'll see your kid again and you'll be able to tell him all the dumb stories from the old days."

Thane looked grateful for the kind words, if nothing else. However, as he smiled at her, Jack suddenly felt she was touching something scaly and cold. She looked down to see that she had placed one of her hands atop his. Embarrassed, she pulled back suddenly.

"Anyway," she grumbled, trying to ignore what had happened. "Don't go all gloomy on me and shit, okay? You're no fun when you brood. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone goes for that crap."

"What do you go for?" Thane asked, slyly.

"Nothing, forget it," Jack growled, pulling away. "Don't be a dick."

Thane laughed lightly.

"Thank you, Jack," he stated. "In these times, faith is tested. But I do trust Shepard, and all of you. We will get home, I have to believe that, even if the facts say otherwise."

"Don't mention it," Jack insisted. "Like I said, I don't want you moping around like a sad sack is all."

She thankfully did not have to continue her denial, as an alarm sounded. Something akin to a yellow alert for stand by she wagered, it wasn't the same shrill sound she was used to.

"Ah, fuck now what?" She snarled.

"We should find out," Thane said standing up. "Shouldn't take long. The bridge isn't too far."

Jack just sighed, even this had gotten her out of an awkward situation, it still meant there was likely something shitty they'd have to deal with now.

"This is what I get for taking a lunch break on the ship that's pulling patrol duty."

* * *

Of all the potential problems, Zek did not expect this one to crop up so soon. There it was though, staring them practically in the face. Two frigates on a fairly standard search pattern through the system. Just by looking at them, Zek knew they weren't Covenant. They were too modified for that. According to the scans, they had better armor and better shields. So it was obvious these were pirates. The even bigger give away were the markings on the ships' hulls, Snarlbeak's fleet.

The good news was that Zhoc hadn't actually tracked them down, not really. He wouldn't be sending a search party in for that. No, these guys has just got lucky, probably one of many search groups scouring the sector for them. However, they had still flown into the system they were stuck in. Two frigates wouldn't be much of a match for a Carrier, but it wouldn't matter. Snarlbeak no doubt had standing orders, the second they found the _Ascendant Justice_ they'd call in their position or jump back to their fleet. Then they'd have a whole task force of Battlecruisers to deal with.

That could not happen. If Zhoc picked up their trail now they'd be in for a galaxy's worth of pain. They needed to resolve this quickly. Lucky for them, the _Fallen Serpent's_ stealth systems would shadow them from the frigates for a while. They would inevitably find the _Ascendant Justice_ though, so while they had time they needed to act fast. Which was why as soon as they had got a handle on what was coming their way, Zek contacted the _Normandy_. It was the only other ship with a practical stealth system of a sort and they were going to need them to pull this off.

"ETA on Shepard?" Zek asked Retz, his eyes still glued to the data screen showing the frigates.

"A few more minutes," Retz reported. "Enemy still hasn't detected anything. They're being very cautious in their search patterns. Almost like they're refraining from going to deep into the system."

"Afraid of getting spotted maybe?" Zek suggested.

"Perhaps," Retz said, scratching his neck somewhat. "It's just... something feels off."

Before the discussion could go further, the doors to the bridge opened up. Stepping through came Jack and Thane, making a beeline right towards him.

"Bad guys?" Jack asked. "Covies or your pals?"

"We share the same occupation, that doesn't make Snarlbeak my pal," Zek clarified.

"Whatever," Jack said dismissively "Point is its him, right?"

"His people, yes," Zek informed her. "Don't worry, we already got a plan in place and your Commander is on his way."

Almost as if on cue, the comm-channel activated. Retz put through and Shepard's voice filled the intercom.

" _Alright, Zek, we're ready for action,"_ he began _"What's the situation?"_

"We got our sights trained on the enemy frigates, but the second they see us they'll try contacting their main fleet," Zek explained. "I need you to get your Synth in that computer of yours to shut down their systems for a bit so we can take them out."

" _EDI can do that, but it won't last for long,"_ Shepard warned. _"They can run a bypass if we take too long to destroy them."_

"Leave that problem up to me," the pirate assured. "They won't be breathing that long."

" _Alright, just get ready to move,"_ Shepard warned. _"It won't take them long to realize something is up when EDI cuts their comms."_

"Already moving," Zek assured. "We'll drop cloak as soon as you give us the go."

They had the _Serpent_ move towards the frigates, keeping their ship above theirs at all times. Even with a cloak, if they got anywhere near their scan range they could potentially be discovered regardless. Besides, they'd have a better line of fire this way.

"Everything good on weapons?" Zek asked Retz.

"Systems are spooling, but we're not activating ready sequences just yet," he explained. "They might detect the power surge."

"Good, I don't want to risk us spoiling the surprise," Zek grinned. "Where's the fun in that?"

Jack moved up alongside Zek's command chair, eyeing his display.

"So, what?" She asked. "We just damn the torpedoes and fuck'em all up?"

"I like to try to keep things simple," Zek explained. "There is a bit more to it. We're targeting the engines first. We can't risk them jumping. If they get away, we're fucked. That's the other reason Shepard is here."

"Yeah, I see," Jack quickly reasoned slyly. "Two ships with stealth capabilities equals twice the surprise attack. Sneaky as fuck."

"That's the kig-yar way," Zek chuckled. "You approve?"

"Well, as long as something explodes in the end I'm cool," she informed him. "That's my way."

Moments later, EDI contacted the _Serpent_.

" _Comm traffic on both ships is blocked,"_ she informed them. _"I have disguised it as a systems glitch, but it won't take long for them to realize the truth."_

"Then it's time to open up the guns on their asses!" Zek declared. "All Torpedoes, fire on the first frigate! Full spread!"

The _Serpent's_ cloak dropped and all at once he Corvette launched a flurry of plasma Torpedoes at the first frigate. The frigate responded rapidly, activating counter-measures to divert the incoming projectiles rocketing towards them from above. But the _Serpent_ had gotten in so close and had attacked with total surprise, that it couldn't achieve full coverage.

From the Bridge, everyone watched as a number of torpedoes hit home. Plasma bursts ruptured across the hull, tearing into the engine room before rippling across the ship. The enemy ship trembled horribly, but started firing back all the same, even as parts flew off into space. The pulse lasers hit their shields, but the _Serpent_ had already begun taking evasive action.

"Four direct hits on engines, they're dead in the water," Retz reported. "Hull integrity is weakening, but they're holding on. Second frigate appears to be breaking off."

"They're providing cover for their friends to jump, adorable," Zek chuckled. "Hit'em again, right in the face. We're not wasting any more time on him."

Another torpedo left the _Serpent's_ tube and flew straight into the frigate's Bridge. The resulting explosion obliterated the section, as a chain reaction ripped the ship apart. As the vessel fell to pieces, the second frigate began firing sporadic shots back, trying to force the _Serpent_ off its tail. Zek had the Corvette pull hard to starboard and activate counter-measures to protect themselves. The incoming plasma torpedoes missed, but they needed to get back into range quickly.

"Detecting a power surge," Retz warned. "Slipspace rupture imminent."

"Shepard, if you're in position, take their engine out already!" Zek ordered. "They're bugging out faster than we can move!"

There was no response from Shepard over the comm, but that soon proved to be irrelevant. The Commander answered in another way. A speedy little dot, like a shooting star, appeared in the void. Followed by a big blue stream of light ejecting out of it. It struck the engine section of the frigate hard and ravaged the area, blazing through the shields and the hull with ease. There was an explosive burst and some of the thrusters on the frigate just up and died.

" _We crippled them, Zek,"_ Shepard reported. _"We're going to do a wide sweep and come in again."_

"Ha, they'll be dead before you get the chance, Commander," Zek assured.

"Power surge is gone," Retz reported. "That was certainly cutting it close though."

"That's Shepard, always gotta milk the hero moment," Jack chortled. "The big boy scout."

"All I care about is getting into position to kill that ship," Zek stated. "Target every critical system, obliterate them!"

The frigate had already started turning, preparing all guns to fire. It let off a volley aimed directly at the _Serpent_. Zek wasn't about to turn away though, he would not give them a chance to bypass the comm block.

"Hard turn port, but keep moving towards them!" Zek ordered. "We do not blink!"

The Bridge pitched to port, unsteadying Jack and Thane's stance somewhat. The two bumped into each other, as Zek and Retz held onto their chair and station respectively. The volley of torpedoes passed them by, thanks in no small part to the pitch maneuver as well as their counter-measures. They were now in range to fire their own volley and the gunners did not hesitate to do so. A series of torpedoes ejected out of their tubes, hurtling towards the frigate. The slammed into the ship's side, ripping it apart. It only took a few moments before the whole ship exploded in a violent blue plasma ball.

"Well you got your explosion," Zek told Jack. "Happy now?"

He looked over to see the convict pulling herself away from Thane's arms and trying to compose herself.

"Yeah, awesome," she said nervously. "Super badass and all that."

Zek looked a bit confused, but he wasn't able to remark on the situation. Shepard's voice came over the comm again.

" _Zek, complication,"_ he reported. _"While we were preparing for another pass, EDI detected another ship. A bit smaller than the frigates and unarmed, some kind of merchant vessel. As soon as we started targeting it they, well... they surrendered."_

The pirate shipmaster now had a more pressing puzzle on his hands. He instructed the helmsman to lock onto the _Normandy's_ coordinates and come about. It didn't take them long to find the plucky little ship and the so called freighter that it was now targeting with its weapons. A large bulky ship, with a huge front end and rounder stern.

"That's a Carrack," Retz observed. "And it looks to be part of Zhoc's fleet if the markings are correct."

"And they just gave up?" Zek asked. "Why?"

" _I don't know,"_ Shepard reported, _"but they've shut down all engines and systems save for life support. I have EDI blocking their comms as well, but I have no clue as to what is going on."_

"That's why the frigates' search patterns were off," Retz realized. "They were diverted. Someone must've told them to take up this search grid cause they were closest, but they were on escort duty. So they brought them along, but held them back in case anything went wrong. Oh, when Snarlbeak finds the person who made this blunder he is going to shriek bloody murder."

Or more likely have his pet Ibie'shan beat them till they were were nothing but a puddle of blood, Zek thought. Either way, that wasn't his problem. What he wanted to know was what was so damn important to not leave unattended and too valuable to lose in a firefight. The only reason these guys would surrender rather than scuttle the ship was that there was something aboard that Zhoc wanted intact. As in he could risk it being stolen, but not destroyed outright.

That intrigued Zek immensely.

"Retz, get us alongside that Carrack and prepare a Phantom," he ordered. "I'm finding out what they have inside personally."

"Of course, sir," Retz acknowledged. "I have to be honest, I'm a bit curious myself. It must be something too priceless to lose. Another relic perhaps?"

"Don't know," Zek admitted as he got up from his chair. "But anything Zhoc refrains from destroying is worth a look see, no matter what it is."

* * *

There was only a small crew aboard the Carrack, nothing more than glorified truckers really. They just hauled the stuff, no real threat to them. At least not at the moment. Varvok had brought over some of his men to keep them under guard, while Zek and Shepard decided to check out the cargo hold for themselves. Zek expected they'd find some kind of weapon or maybe even Forerunner junk like Retz had suggested. That would've answered his various questions right off the bat.

That was not what they found though.

When the doors to the cargo bay opened, Zek and Shepard discovered something rather unprecedented for a starship of any kind. The hold contained four standard sized water tanks, circular in shape and about the general size of two swimming pools combined. They could even hear the sloshing water from here.

"What in the world?" Shepard asked as they walked inside. "Is there a water shortage I haven't heard about?"

"Nothing Retz has told me about," Zek answered, just curious about this as he was. "Our planet is mostly one big equatorial ocean, we got plenty of water."

Zek walked up to one of the water tanks and pressed his hand over the glass. As he looked in, through the murk, he saw some kind of shadow. As it became more clear, he saw something large and heavy, covered in bumps of some sort. And then... he heard it call, a big echoey cry of some sort. A song, resonating in the water, muffled only slightly by the glass. Zek's eyes widened as Shepard joined him.

"It can't be," the pirate said, almost to astonished for words.

But it was, placing its eye up against the glass was a white-skinned, bulbous headed sea creature, covered in a series of strange bulging glands. It's cry was a cross between a gurgle and a low resonating humming tune. Zek stepped back in complete shock, Shepard did the same.

"It's a whale," the Commander said, a mixture of confusion and surprise. "A very ugly looking whale... on a spaceship."

"That thing is not ugly," Zek said, his shock giving way to joy. "That thing is the most beautiful sea creature in the galaxy!"

Shepard slowly turned his head to the pirate, his baffled expression even greater than before.

"Zek, not to judge your perception of beauty-"

"It's a chorka, Shepard!" Zek shouted with glee. "It's a baby chorka! Here! All the way out here! A billion some odd miles from Eayn!"

The boil covered whale creature moved away from the glass and continued swimming through the murky water. Zek looked out onto the four other tanks in awe and could now more clearly hear their song as the babies sung to each other.

"They were transporting chorka! Of course!" Zek shouted, practically bursting with glee. "No wonder Zhoc would tell them not to destroy the boat! Scuttling the ship with these guys on it would be a crime of the highest order! Even to a kig-yar! You'd be killing a valuable crop! One you could probably steal back! Especially from another pirate!"

"Wait, Chorka?" Shepard asked, finally remembering what Zek was going on about. "As in the creatures who secrete that ichor you drink? That's what these are?"

"It makes sense now!" Zek laughed. "Everyone kept wondering how Snarlbeak had built up his little bootlegging enterprise into a practical monopoly! The answer is he's got his own pod or pods of Chorka he's breeding! Holy shit, that's genius!"

"He created a whale farm... to make beer?" Shepard worked out for himself, shaking his head at the absurdity. "Why would he go to such extremes?"

"The Covenant, that's why. What else?" Zek answered with a grunt. "They've banned the production and sale of ichor. They've quarantined all the Chorka in little fucking preserves on Eayn, kept their populations controlled. It is near impossible to find them in the wild now and trying to go after any in said preserves is fucking risky as shit. Seems Snarlbeak found a way around it. He rounded up a bunch of Chorka he could find, transported them off world, and bred his own private Pod."

"So he has an endless supply of ichor not regulated by the Covenant and no doubt spread across a few other worlds," Shepard reasoned. "And I'm guessing these guys were being transfered to a new pod to keep the population from inbreeding or some such?"

"It's not just that," Zek stated jubilantly. "With a private pod of his own, he doesn't have to concern himself with some Covie asshole finding his stores or locating his stills or whatever. He can keep off the grid and out of sight. Most ichor bootleggers aren't secure enough to risk full production. They try shit like that on Eayn and the Covies are gonna track you down one way or another. Remove your source of Chorka from the Covenant's prying eyes and you can set yourself up a proper distillery. That's why he can create so many different flavors and liquors instead of purely relying on on where and when he extracts the icor! He doesn't just have product now, he has a quality product! Fucking brilliant!"

Shepard still seemed a bit lost, his eyes wandering back to the tank. The chorka was back, circling the area near where the two were standing. It was looking at them curiously, more specifically him. It had probably never seen a human before. Shepard was drawn towards it, placing his hand on the glass. The baby Chroka nuzzled his palm through the see-through surface.

"So essentially, this is a joint animal and alcohol smuggling ring," he stated. "They breed'em, extract ichor, bring the newborns some place else to start up new pods and promote the best tasting stuff. Am I right?"

"Precisely, you catch on quick," Zek said, seemingly rather impressed by the Commander's quick deduction. "Ichor rum, gin, beer, brandy, wine, spirits, bourbon, whiskey, all kinds of drinks can be fermented and created through ichor. On its own, it's good enough, but properly distilled it becomes something even more prized, more valuable. And Snarlbeak's stuff has become a fucking brand because of it."

Zek looked to the baby Chorka himself now, his eyes glowing with a familiar look. It was one Shepard was familiar with by now, ambition. He could practically see the wheels turning and had already guessed where this was going.

"Oh no," he stated, stepping away from the tank. "No, no. Wait a minute-"

"These four are enough to get started!" Zek declared. "I could be pumping out Ichor and smuggling it around within days. It might take some time to properly make some recipes and shit, but it's a foundation for something."

"You're talking about running a bootlegging operation inside the fleet," Shepard told him flatly. "Do you even hear yourself now?"

"Well we can't just leave these poor things to die out here," Zek claimed, looking at the baby chorka. "They need proper food and care, how could you want to leave them out here all alone?"

Shepard rolled his eyes at Zek, another one of his attempts at feigning altruism.

"And bringing them aboard so you can slaughter them for their Ichor at some point is any better how?" He asked.

Zek looked on aghast, his fake compassion giving way to genuine disgust.

"Slaughter?" Sounding rather disturbed, even insulted by the very concept. "The fuck you on about, man? The fuck you mean slaughter?"

"Well, on Earth, usually people kill whales to get what they want out of them," Shepard explained. "I just thought-"

Zek wretched in true disgust and revulsion, acting out as if he wanted to vomit.

"You kill your chorka? Seriously! What are you? Fucking barbarians! What's wrong with you people?"

"We used to kill whales, we don't anymore," Shepard clarified. "I don't know about the UNSC, but where I'm from, we stopped all whaling a long time ago. Before we even set up our first lunar colony even."

"That's still horrible," Zek stated. "How could you kill Chorka? That's repulsive!"

"You mean to tell me you don't kill Corka to get their ichor?" Shepard asked. "You extract it? With what? Needles?"

"Specialized equipment, which includes at times needles," Zek explained rather offhanded. "Also a pump system. We stopped killing Chorka back in the fucking stone age when we realized pretty quickly what that cost."

"You mean potentially killing off the species and with it your precious ichor," Shepard reasoned.

Zek looked perplexed.

"Uh, no, every Chorka, the longer it lives, develops a more potent and better tasting ichor secretions," he clarified. "Combine that with depending on the region, heat of the water and breed, the taste alters even more. You kill a Chorka, you're basically destroying an entire line of ichor that has been refined over generations and time. It's basically burning money, wasteful, stupid. Anyone who does it is needlessly destructive and is ruining it for the rest of us. I mean, yeah, we also don't want them going extinct either, but it's just not practical to kill them, period. They produce ichor throughout their lives, for free. Why would you cut them open for a quick buck when the long term nets you more?"

Of course, Shepard realized. Why would he ever think the kig-yar thought about compassion first before profit? Even when they were protecting wildlife, it was because they got something out of it. He suppose he couldn't complain, as long as the poor creatures weren't being killed for the sake of a buzz. There was another nagging question in his head though.

"Why do they even secrete alcohol laced boil goo?" He questioned outright.

"Well, they're not exactly boils, but they look like them enough that we call them that," Zek explained. "They're more like very pronounced glands and we think they use the secretions to attract food to them. Small fish and the like. They can also use it to defend from predators, throw off their senses, disorient them with a sudden burst and such. But back to the subject, I'm still trying to wrap my head around you people murdering your Chorka."

"Our whales didn't excrete beer from their bodies," Shepard explained. "And again we stopped that. The real point is you still wanting to use these guys to run a bootlegging operation. Holland is not going to go for that."

"Well congrats then, you might as well just start the whole slaughter you abandoned all over again with that attitude," Zek declared. "You wanna kill them yourself? Be quicker than starving."

"I wasn't going to suggest that," Shepard informed him. "We could simply disable their systems long enough for us to jump out here and they can come and pick these guys up. No Chorka have to die. But we don't have to bring them along either."

"So they go back to Zhoc and continue to fund his criminal enterprise," Zek stated. "Is this how we hurt an enemy in this alliance? We just give them back their shit?"

Shepard sighed, this was not what he had wanted to do.

"Zek, I've given you a lot of leeway so far, a lot," he reminded him. "So much so, that it has become a bit much for even Holland to handle. The UNSC doesn't like feeling like they're extended muscle for you to order around. We bring this thing back to the carrier, you're essentially giving them another ship to guard and this one isn't for any strategic or military value."

"We can use it though," Zek insisted. "I can barter some of the ichor for other pieces of equipment. Weapons, armor, tech, and share it with you guys. And you wouldn't even have to guard it or tow it or whatever. The ship is small enough to be attached to a docking port indefinitely. It wouldn't be a drain on any resources. No refueling or whatever. We can just leave it as is for now, no fuss."

Shepard looked at him, signaling he still wasn't sure. At this point Zek, got desperate.

"Okay, how about this," he said sullenly. "Let me bring it back and I will freely give the UNSC some of those Wraith tanks they were eyeing, plus a portion of my share of the Forerunner tech we took from that old wreck. Come on, all that is a fair trade in my eyes."

It was there Shepard realized something about Zek, something he hadn't considered before now. The pirate's desire to create a criminal empire for himself was a hindrance to a proper alliance in some respects. But it also was a weakspot, one he could exploit. If Zek really wanted something, he could twist the arm enough to make him consent to some things. Maybe not full military commitment just yet, but in time...

"Okay, the Chorka are your baggage," Shepard stated firmly. "Your men look after them, your men handle them. The UNSC aren't going to be your beer babysitters. Understand?"

"Got it," Zek declared, his smile returning. "Absolutely, whatever you want!"

The pirate grabbed Shepard's hand, shaking it furiously.

"Don't make me regret this, Zek," Shepard told him flatly. "Now let's get moving. We'll put the crew in escape pods, leaving them drifting. Eventually, when their escort don't report in, they'll send someone to search this area and pick them up. Best we be far away from here when they do that."

Zek just laughed heartily, grabbing his comm.

"Retz, you will not believe what I found down here! Get this!"

The pirate ran off towards the bridge, probably feel he had pulled off another master deal. In reality, he had just given Shepard a way, a clear tangible way to convince him and the rest of the kig-yar, that their future lay with an alliance and helping them destroying the Covenant once and for all.

* * *

The announcement that the fleet was preparing for slipspace jump barely distracted Tali. She was just happy that their little errand to assist Zek had been successful. Even if they did apparently pick up a literal flying aquarium on the way. Shepard had to hash the details out with Holland, but everything seemed to clear. Tali wondered how long it would be before Gabby and Ken wanted time off to see the "alien space whales" as they calling them. Honestly, Kenneth probably just wanted to check them out because they more or less produced beer from their bodies constantly.

She didn't really mind though, they all deserved some downtime. Especially her, just as soon as she was done with these final calculations. They were so close to cracking this slipspace/mass effect integration, they just needed to apply themselves a bit more and they'd be ready. The whole prospect was so exciting she could hardly sleep. Which was no doubt not helping things. She had another headache again, and it was pissing her off, but she'd be damned if she'd let it interrupt her calculations. She only had a few left to do anyway, she'd sleep then.

As she continued punching in the figures though, there was a spike in her mind. She groaned as she grabbed at her forehead, stopping her work suddenly. That had been pretty bad, maybe she needed some medication first before she took snooze.

"Bosh'tet," she growled. "Stupid headache. Just let me work already."

As she rubbed her head through her suit, she thought she head something. At first it sounded like a hissing of the engine's power coils. Just some pressure release or something. She paid it no mind. Then she heard something more distinct, something less mechanical. Speech, muffled conversation, some kind of voice. Maybe it was a certain ex-con coming back to her hidey hole.

"Jack? That you?" She asked, not even looking back.

There was no response, but it soon became clear it wasn't Jack. The voice didn't sound female and it didn't sound human. It was like a hissing whisper combined with a groan. Some strange sort of organic grumble. She couldn't make it out. Most of it seemed alien in language... save for one word.

 _ **Hunger.**_

Tali brought her head up, just as the voice got louder, and another word became clear.

 _ **Revenge.**_

"What?"

 _ **HUNGER! REVENGE!**_

Something that felt like hot breath hit the back of Tali's neck. She turned suddenly, pulling out her omni-tool and activating its blade. But when she turned, all she saw was a deserted engineering deck, with nothing and no one there. Tali breathed a sigh of relief and deactivated her omni-blade.

"Keelah, maybe you do need to get more sleep, Tali," she said, holding her head. "You're imagining things now."

The door nearby suddenly opened and in walked Gabby, working on her omni-tool as she walked.

"Tali? You're still here?" She asked, looking a bit surprised. "I thought you were going on your sleep cycle."

"Yeah, just finishing up some calculations," she explained. "I'm done more or less, I'll go now."

Cautiously, she felt like asking the obvious question.

"Um, you didn't happen to see anyone else on the deck did you?" She asked.

"No, just me, coming just now," Gabby assured, looking concerned. "Tali, are you okay? You look a bit rattled."

"Too much to do and not enough time is all," Tali assured her. "I'll be fine as soon as I get some sleep."

"Good," Gabby told her relieved. "You've been working yourself to the bone. If anyone deserves a rest it's you of all people."

Tali closed her terminal and began to make her way out.

"It will all be worth it, you'll see," she insisted to her human compatriot. "Don't get used to slumming it inside this carrier for much longer. When we're done, we'll be doing our own slipspace jumps instead of hitching a ride like we're about to do now."

Gabby looked at her perplexed.

"About to do?" She asked.

"Yeah, they're just about to jump out of the system, didn't you hear?" Tali asked, laughing at Gabby's apparent forgetfulness. "Nose stuck in the omni-tool again, huh?"

Gabby's concern returned.

"Uh, Tali... we already jumped," she explained cautiously. "We left both the Forerunner wreck and the system it was in behind us like an hour ago."

Tali's eyes went wide in shock. An hour? No, they just announced they were about to jump like two minutes ago.

"What?" She finally asked, confused out of her gourd.

"No one has seen you for over an hour, Tali," Gabby explained. "We all thought you were off the ship or finally getting some sleep. You've been at your calculations for an hour?"

Tali held her head, a tinge of fear reaching up into her skull.

"No... I..."

She couldn't get it out. She couldn't say anything. It was all too much. An hour? She had been down here for an hour alone? How could she forget an hour? Where had all that time gone?

* * *

AN: Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. What's wrong with Tali? You'll have to come back next time to find out. In the meantime, do check out the profile page. There's a new blog post for behind the scenes notes on this chapter with a link address you can copy paste. Also, another link to a Hellfox audio presentation. This time featuring more stuff from the first Reach story. Do check it out, I mean we're headed back to Reach soon. You might as well remember the early days of this crazy experiment.


	14. Visions of the Forgotten

**Chapter 13: Visions of the Forgotten**

 _We stopped looking for monsters under our bed_

 _when we realized that they were inside us._

 _-Charles Darwin_

She had no idea why she was here. How Kasumi had convinced her to come to this little film fest was beyond her at this point. Was she so tired that she was losing the ability to say no? Or had spending so much time with silver-tongued pirates increased Kasumi's speech skills?

Either way, she was now stuck watching a bunch of old vids, starring some psycho in a hockey mask, murdering other humans at a summer camp. Currently, a young boy was getting a corkscrew shoved through his hand before a machete sliced through his face. Considering the young human had just lost his virginity mere moments ago, the in-joke was pretty clear. What wasn't clear was who the hell the Jackals were rooting for anymore. Taking all that in, she again asked herself, why was she still here?

"When you said they were playing culturally significant human cinema here, this was not the picture you put in my head," she informed Kasumi in an angered whisper. "Honestly, do humans actually like this?"

"This IS culturally significant," Kasumi stated defensively. "The rise of the slasher movie greatly altered the course of horror cinema for years to come. Jason Voorhees himself is one of the seminal icons of horror. He's simultaneously a victim and a villain! He works on so many levels."

"Most of them involving impalement it seems," Tali grumbled. "I also thought he was supposed to be using a chainsaw at some point."

"That's Leatherface, different character," Kasumi corrected. "Come on, it's not that bad. I mean, there's romance in it, you like that."

"I like it up until the point they're brutally murdered," Tali explained. "What is with humans and punishing people for having sex?"

"It's more complicated than that," Kasumi argued passionately. "By engaging in their baser instincts, they open the door to risk, that of death and trauma. They give up their innocence and enter the scarier more adult world. That takes the form of a hockey mask wearing, machete weilding maniac. Surely you can appreciate that concept."

"It still feels like your culture takes issue with one of the most important and intimate acts that a romantic relationship can create," Tali stated. "Quarians warn about the dangers of intimacy but we emphasize how brave one has to be to take such a risk for love. We don't need to create a boogeyman to discourage it."

At this point, the female protagonist was already on the run from the killer. That sequence more or less put Tali ill at ease. Too many bad memories from what happened on Halo. She shifted in her seat somewhat.

"At least this is the final chapter," she said with relief.

"Actually there's about, um, six more in the original numbered series," Kasumi admitted reluctantly. "Plus there's the rebooted series starting with the remake."

"Oh joy," Tali sighed, her deadpan tone highlighting her annoyance. "Which is the one where he starts killing them in their dreams."

"That's Freddy Kruger," Kasumi corrected once more. "He shows up in a crossover later. It's good fun, if a bit stupid."

That was about the final straw for her. She was not going to sit through who knew how many more vids full of blood and guts. No matter how much she enjoyed Kasumi's company, she was done.

"That's it, I'm out," she said sitting up. "I'm grabbing what's left the graxen and going to watch the sappiest interspecies romance story I can find."

"You'll miss the triple decapitation in part six," Kasumi teased. "They finally managed to restore it to as it was intended before the censors got to it."

"I think I'll survive, thank you," Tali shot back. "See you later, Kas."

* * *

Tali left the Vid Room and made her towards the exit hatch. For some reason the whole corridor felt a bit darker than usual. She shook her head in derision, of course the lights weren't working here. Zek's people slacked off on even the most basic of ammenities. They were probably brilliant engineers, but they had no proper work ethic. None of them would last a day in the Migrant Fleet with their lazy attitudes.

She moved through the darkened corridor at a quicker pace, mindful of her step. It would be just her luck if she stepped on some discarded ichor bottle or whatever and tripped. That was another issue with the _Fallen Serpent,_ the grime and garbage buildup. They just threw whatever they were done with onto the floor and walked away, leaving it for someone else to pick up later. Jackals were very messy creatures and they didn't seem to think much about the concept of keeping things sterile. Another reason they wouldn't last long in the Migrant Fleet.

However, as gross as the _Serpent_ could be, she felt something was off about the current disarray around her. Did it smell this bad? It hadn't when she came aboard. Was there this much greasy food dropped on the floor? Because it felt like she was walking in something squishy every other step or so. There was no way Zek was this dirty. They had the grunts to clean up a lot of this. They were pretty slow and weren't always available, but Kasumi said they did a decent job playing Janitor. They couldn't be suddenly slacking off, unless they had gotten fed up with the Jackals' treatment of them.

No, there's no way, she'd have heard about a strike from Kasumi. Even if they had stopped cleaning, the Jackals couldn't generate enough trash and gunk to make something smell this bad. Her olfactory filters couldn't be overwhelmed like this unless she was in the middle of a giant dump and even then it wouldn't smell this bad. Also, was it getting darker as well as getting slimier? Her feet felt coated in something and she could barely see anymore.

As she rounded a corner she expected led to the exit hatch, her head pounded slightly. This had been happening more and more lately. She chalked it up to stress or some kind of infection, but even sleeping didn't alleviate it and Chakwas kept saying she was okay. No sinus infection, no concussion, no nothing. She was in perfect health as far as she could see. So why did Tali feel so rotten all the time? Why did her head hurt so much that she felt her skull was pulsating?

More to the point, why were the walls pulsating?

As she looked around, agitated at it all, she found no exit, only more mold and grime everywhere. She looked around, thinking she had taken a wrong turn. Maybe she needed to go back and retrace her steps. Or at least she would, if behind her wasn't some kind of light eminating from a corridor that wasn't there before.

She approached it cautiously, unsure of what was it was, until she started hearing voices.

"It can't be over. This can't be our end."

"It won't be, we will make sure of that. We will live on. We will endure."

"But how? As what? It is all taken from us. It is all gone."

When she finally rounded the corner, she was astonished to see who it was speaking. It was a trio of quarians, here, on the _Fallen Serpent_. How? She wanted to say something but her voice seemed caught in her throat.

"We have not lost, not yet," One of them claimed. "We shall rise from this defeat reborn, renewed. We will be stronger, greater."

"But this plan, it will change everything we are," another stated. "We will no longer be who we once were. We will be something else."

"There is nothing left for us if we remain stagnant," the third declared. "Nothing left if we do not act now! What was rightfully ours has been stolen! Taken by those lesser than us, who are undeserving of anything but our rage!"

"And that rage will be enough," the first quarian shouted, clenching his fist. "They wish to rule in our stead? Then we shall test their mettle, their desire for control. We shall see if they truly have the will to face us when we are the scourge on their lands, on their planets, on their fleets! Our rage will guide us! Feed us! As will the cries of anguish from their dead!"

Tali didn't understand what was going on, why these quarians were talking like this. It sounded like they were speaking of the exile, of the fleet fleeing the homeworld. But, that was centuries ago. These quarians sounded like they had been there and that was impossible. But something stranger than that now occured. Every other moment, the images of the quarians shifted, turning into something foreign, alien, ghastly. Some different unrecognizable species, with distorted voices and whizzed figures, decaying and rotting even as they spoke.

"We shall be a new plague, a new calamity," the first quarian continued, his body shifting and morphing every other word. "We shall spill out across the stars, humble them before us. They shall all be consumed, along with anyone else who has dared to defy us."

"And what will we become?" The second quarian spoke, his form shifting in a similar matter. "We will forever be unsatisfied, forever unquenched. They must pay, but must we truly surrender ourselves in the process?"

"I will not die defeated and forgotten!" The female quarian shouted, her voice becoming monstrous as her shape shifted and contorted. "We will allow our rage to fester and boil over! It will burn them! Feed us! And from it a new galaxy will be born! One free of them! One we shall control! If it is a ruin so be it! As long as they suffer and die! As long as our revenge is secured, even after death!"

"We shall be remembered, if not as we were than as what we shall become," the first quarian stated. "They shall fear us, they shall crumble and we will rise again!"

Tali tried to back away, whatever these things were, they were not quarian. She had to warn Kasumi and Zek. Tell them what had come aboard the ship, some strange shapeshifting race with some crazy plan. She had to get out of here. She moved back but took a tumble slightly. The shapes turned, now noticing her at last. The first creature, now in his true hedious form pointed at her and screamed a bloodcurdling cry. The other two charged towards her.

Tali pushed herself up and continued to run, only for some kind of tentacle to wrap around her leg and force her back down. She looked back and saw a terrifying maw of some kind, bearing down on her, pulling her in, as the two other creatures advance. It snarled and spat, bile pouring from its gums as she struggled to free herself. It pulled her in more rapidly and then finally seemed to scream into her very mind.

 **Revenge is everlasting. Timeless as Death.**

Tali jumped up with a start, her head pounding and heart racing. She looked frantically around to see where she was, what horrible nightmare she had been dragged into by that thing. But... there was no monster, no creature, no terrible beast. She was in Shepard's bedroom, on the couch.

Everything was quiet, save for the low hum of the ship and the filtration system for the fish tank. All of Wade's little ship models were clearly visible through the display case. On the coffee table was that weird Prothean relic they had found when chasing after project Firewalker. Everything was normal, nothing amiss. She looked around to find Shepard, who was still asleep in his bed, although slightly stirring. Her suit was still on, so that answered at least why she wasn't in bed with him. Her head was still hurting though, not as much as before, but she could still feel a bit of pain.

"Tali?"

She looked back over to see Shepard fully awake now, pulling himself out of the covers.

"Tali, what's wrong?" He asked concerned.

"Nothing, just... I thought," she could barely explain, her head swimming. "I... I guess I just had a bad dream."

Was it though? Everything had felt so real. Her head was all mixed up and Shepard could tell.

"Are you sure you're alright? No fever or anything?" He asked again.

"No, nothing," she swore. "It... it was just some really crazy nightmare. I probably ate something that didn't agree with me is all."

"Or you're still not getting enough proper sleep," Shepard suggested, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You sure you don't want Chakwas to look over you again?"

Tali laughed slightly.

"What? And be told the same thing as before?" She asked sarcastically, almost laughing. "I appreciate the thought, Shepard, but really, it's nothing. Just more stupid headaches aggravating some dreams I'm having. That's all."

She sat more upright as she rubbed her temples.

"Ugh, I think maybe I'm just guilty about apparently sleeping in and missing out on Kasumi's little vid marathon with her pirate friends is all," she explained. "That's how the dream opened at least."

"Vid Marathon?" Shepard questioned, sounding confused.

"Yeah for a bunch of scary vids or something," Tali explained. "I should've realized something was up when Kasumi said your people made several films starring some crazy person in a hockey mask."

Tali noticed Shepard looking at her oddly, and her concern suddenly rose. Shepard never looked that way unless something was scaring him.

"Tali, you did go to the _Serpent_ to watch vids," he explained. "Kasumi called EDI to let us know you were coming back. You walked in, came up to my cabin and I found you sleeping on the couch so I didn't wake you and gave you a blanket."

He checked the clock with a brief glance.

"That was over two hours ago," he informed her. "You.. you don't remember getting back to the ship?"

Tali looked flabbergasted and more than a little freightened. She didn't remember. She didn't remember any of that.

* * *

An early morning check up was supposed to yield something different this time, instead neither Chakwas or Mordin could find anything. No illness, no brain damage, no concussion. All Chakwas could do was offer some medication to ease the headaches. There was still no explanation for the memory loss, save for maybe that the migraines were somehow affecting her sense of time. Not the best of explanation, but it was the only one they had right now.

Chakwas had made Tali promise to come back in later for more tests, so they could keep working to figure this out. Just more damn delays, she didn't need this kind of crap right now. She had work to finish, they were making some actual progress for once on the Slipspace-Mass Effect Tech merger. All thanks to the Engineer Triplets and their tireless work effort. Despite the slight language curve, the friendly gasbags seemed to know exactly what to do. The work was complicated and it needed their help as much as the Engineers, but it was progressing.

Tali just wanted to get this done, before something else as equally insane as a Forerunner ghost ship popped up on the radar. Which, given they had changed course back to Reach, would probably be soon. The faster she got this done, the sooner she'd have time for other equally important matters. Legion still had a glitch to fix after all and she had somewhat neglected his treatments in favor of getting this project working. And she would get it working.

Two of the Engineers were currently making some further adjustments to the Drive Core, the goal being to better integrate a Mass Effect Field with the Slipspace rupture itself. That seemed to be the key. If they could just get a rupture entangled with a field they could use them in tandem to propel their ship through that was accomplished, speed would no longer be an issue. Even better for the UNSC, they could reverse engineer the process for their own slipspace drives.

Daniels and Donnelly were already monitoring the systems fluctuations as Tali oversaw the Engineers' refit directly. Their tentacles were going deep into the core, fiddling with various components and system. The third one was over near the recently installed Slipspace drive, managing things on that end. It was amazing how in tandem they all seemed. Mordin had studied them a bit and concluded they were capable of a form of mental communication. A sort of wireless signal they could use to speak to one another faster than any kind of vocal speech could manage. Daniels called it telepathy, but it was nothing so supernatural. It was no different than how a Geth communicated with other Geth, it was just these creatures were more organic than synthetic.

"Systems reading nominal," Donnelly reported. "Tech sync is... well it's actually working."

"Why are we surprised anymore?" Daniels asked. "We've made more progress on this in the past week than in all the months we've been working on it by ourselves. Those Huragok are a lifesaver."

"They still need our help to make this work," Tali insisted. "They can sync up the technology, we have to make it function."

"At least we know why the Covenant have such powerful ships," Donnelly added. "They got whole teams of these guys in their fleets."

"Yes, but remember ONI's notes," Daniels reminded him. "The Covenant don't upgrade that much. They have all this incredible tech, but they purposely keep things stagnate. They don't innovate, they just maintain."

"Well with how the war is going they don't have much reason to," Donnelly stated.

"Which will be their downfall," Tali assured. "You either adapt and evolve constantly, or you die. Krogan know that, quarians know that, eventually the Covenant will see the error of their oversight."

"Hopefully when it is too late for them to correct it," Daniels suggested.

Tali kept watch on the Engineer working on the Slipspace Drive now, as he continued making interface changes. Tali had her omni-tool hooked up to a diagnostic of the drive itself. Things seemed to be progressing well, as the systems were linking up nicely. Everything seemed green across the board, better than expected when she came up with the modifications. The Engineers had improved on her designs significantly. It was only matter of time before this little dream of theirs was a reality.

As she was working, she heard the door to the engine room open up. She went back to see who it was, seeing it was in fact Miranda. What was she doing down here? She rarely showed up in Engineering unless she had to. Mainly because Jack lived below and, while their relationship had improved, she wanted to limit the time they were forced to talk to each other.

"Hey, Miri," Daniels greeted rather friendly. "What brings you down?"

"Just working on a progress report," she explained. "I hear things have improved."

"They have," Tali confirmed. "Integration is actually making headway. Thanks to the Huragok's assistance."

"I've heard they've done more than get the Slipspace project up and running," Miranda noted. "Your reports say they've increased general maintenance by fifty percent."

"That is accurate," Tali admitted a bit befuddled by the comment. "They've become quite valuable members of the team."

"Not worried about them supplanting you?" Miranda asked rather plainly.

Tali glared a little at that.

"They still need us for direction and proper diagnostic scans. They spend more of their time on the fixes we can't always detect. We stay focused on general issues and assist in the more complicated tasks when need be. Like I said, they're part of the team now, extra tentacles if you will."

"Fair enough," Miranda shrugged. "It's good to see you don't feel threatened or insecure. Considering how successful they've been with everything."

"This is a complicated project, Miranda," Tali explained, trying not to be curt in her tone. "We all knew it would be. Integrating two technologies in order to advance both of their capabilities while minimizing drawbacks would be hard to do if they both came from the same dimension. Mass Effect Fields and Slipspace Drives are entirely new fields. I've needed to study the ins and outs of Slipspace mechanics in general just to keep up."

"We still need to fast track this research," Miranda insisted. "We've had too many setbacks already and things are ramping up considerably. We need to start thinking about testing."

She looked to Tali inquisitively.

"You have considered testing, haven't you?"

"I have, actually," Tali assured. "I've been running subsequent tests for a while now."

"I mean more of a legitimate test," Miranda corrected. "One that proves the Huragok's modifcations are working."

Huragok's Modifications? What was that supposed to mean?

"The modifications are based on my studies," Tali informed her. "Like I said, the Huragok are just able to make them a reality. This is still my project."

"Well if you want to take credit," Miranda told her, "than perhaps you should consider putting in more of the work besides supervising."

"More work?" Tali said, rather insulted. "You have no idea how much work I'm putting into this project. It's not just watching the huragok do their job. Like I said, they still needed direction, planning, proper guidance. I need to run diagnostics, go over a ton of prep work, I've needed to explain to them what we're trying to accomplish so they can translate it into reality. I've had to get in there more than a few times to assist them."

"We all have," Daniels cut in suddenly. "We've put in a ton of hours on all this, Miranda. Tali especially."

"I'm sure you all have," Miranda sighed. "But we've still yet to see some real results. I keep hearing about progress, I want to see it. And Holland agrees."

"We're not ready for a full scale test," Tali explained. "We still have some major integrations. Not to mention a proper configuration of Mass Effect fields into the cyclic shaft I still need to do."

"Why not just have the Huragok manage those?" Miranda asked skeptically. "Your reports say they're doing wonders already."

"I'm building it, they're improving on it," Tali insisted, her tone shifting more hostile. "I'm not obsolete here, I'm not just supervising."

"Never said anything of the sort," Miranda stated bluntly. "But I feel it would be prudent to at least show us something."

She may not have said it, but she implied it, Tali thought. Miranda was always implying something with her superior sensibilities and tone. Subtle hints she picked up on, that she wasn't as good an engineer as she claimed. That she wasn't as capable an engineering chief as she was. That she couldn't figure this out and should just turn it over to the Huragok entirely. Alright, she wanted results? She'd shut her up.

"I have one test we can try," she stated. "If nothing else it will show the systems are linking up correctly. It won't generate a slipspace rupture yet, but we'll be able to see the core interacting with the drive, powering the general systems. If we went further than that right now we'd risk creating some instability in the core."

"Good enough for now," Miranda accepted. "Lets get it working then."

Tali had Donnelly call the Huragok in out of the core chamber. She then powered up the system, running through the checks. She could feel Miranda hovering over all the while, silently judging her as she worked through the systems. When she looked back, she just saw Miranda looking innocent, as if she was just doing her job. Yeah, if that job meant finding a way to make it look like she was a failure. Something to bring back to Shepard and undermine her.

Well this would show her.

One final check and she started the system. The drive core switched on like a four hundred watt lightbulb, resonating with brighter than usual. Tali kept watch on her systems as one of the Engineers floated nearby.

"Connections are good, power guage is stable," Tali reported. "Daniels, status on the Slipspace Drive?"

"Testing phase initiated, cycling through processes," Daniels replied. "Connection prep set."

"Good," Tali nodded. "Donnelly, spin up the Field Cycles, feed them into the Slipspace Drive, in sequence."

"Gotcha, going through Field Cycle sequence now," Donnelly declared.

Donnelly typed up the commands on the console and Tali watched the powers feeds on her own. terminal. This would show that the system was connected and capable of handling mass effect fields interacting with its own processes. The next step after proving that, would be making the drive create its own fields to feed into the ruptures it would create from now on. First though, prove it could handle and maintain a Mass Effect Field sequence.

The power poured into the drive, the levels holding steady. Tali kept careful watch on the fluctuations as everything lined up more or less. The Slipspace Drive was humming nicely now, the field processes holding and syncing with its rupture sequences perfectly. Tali looked to Miranda, grinning under her mask.

"See, connection stable," she informed her. "And this is partially my work. I designed the connection sequencer that's making this possible."

"Which the Huragok installed and perfected, right?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Tali admitted, her annoyance growing. "But I still came up with the idea that we needed to feed Mass Effect Fields into the drive's main system. It's the only way we can properly sync the systems and allow it to speed our ship through the Slipspace Rupture."

"True, but it was the Huragok who set your idea into motion," Miranda explained. "You wouldn't have gotten this far without them."

"I got plenty far to start with," Tali argued. "Why are you being so dismissive of my work?"

"I'm not dismissive of your work, I'm dismissive of how long this is taking," Miranda explained sternly. "Despite your accomplishments, even with the Huragok, we're still a long ways off. Any of the progress comes from the Engineers themselves from what I can see."

"They're helping, greatly," Tali stated. "But I keep telling you, it's only because I've given them the designs and proper procedures to get it all working. Engineering is more than just attaching wires and turning screws you know. There's a lot of research, practice, development..."

"I know all this, Tali," Miranda informed her. "What I don't understand is, why, given every tool at your disposal, this whole thing still eludes you. Do you need something else? More manpower? Access to more Slipspace tech? Maybe better allocation of time?"

"Allocation?" Tali asked befuddled.

"All I'm saying is you could be focusing on the wrong things," Miranda stated. "Maybe there is a faster route to the answer than what you've settled on."

"I know in my gut this is where we need to focus," Tali insisted. "We are close, increasingly close. If I need something, I'll inform the right people."

"This project isn't just centered on giving the UNSC and edge against the Covenant," Miranda remidned her, crossing her arms. "It's about making our ship more readily independent of the fleet itself. We can't keep relying on piggybacking off the _Justice_. We need to be able to travel under our own power. I need to know if you can get the job done or not and soon. We're out of time concerning this, we're going to be at Reach again in a few days. We need to be at our best."

"We will be, because I'm in engineering," Tali declared. "I know what I'm doing and I'd appreciate it if you respected my abilities for once."

"I respect your abilities," Miranda informed her. "I'm wondering if they're enough."

Tali glared at her incessantly, thoughts swirming around in her head. Miranda, always so pompous, so perfect. Thinking she could run this ship better than anyone. Always getting on her nerves, always judging her silently. She thought she was better than all of them, just because her daddy made her that way. Keelah, she just wanted to scream at her, let it all out, tell her off every time she had some backhanded comment to spout off at her. Bitch, little miss perfect hair and teeth, genetically superior harpy. Why not just explode on her? She deserved it! Jack did it all the time, never got in trouble. She should do just that, finally stand her ground, just dish it back as harsh as she did to her.

She was just about to tell Miranda where to shove it, when one of the Engineers started tapping on her shoulder. Tali turned quickly, causing the gasbag to back up a little. That revealed her terminal and the fact some of the sequences were fluctuating. Tali raced back into position and started looking at it.

"No, no! Field integrity is failing," she realized. "Daniels, can you reignite the sequences?"

"Trying, trying," she stated, rapidly tapping at the controls. "Systems aren't responding fast enough."

"Try pooling power back into the cycles, reset them," Tali ordered.

"Can't, system lockout," Donnelly reported. "We're going to lose connection, it could fry our subsystems."

Tali feverishly worked at her console, trying to reset, but nothing doing. One of the Huragok took off, floating over to the core directly. It attached its tentacles into the system, its bioluminiscence pulsating at it connected with the system. Tali looked to her screen and saw the fluctuations stabalize in seconds. The field held and she breathed a sigh of relief. The test was complete, success assured. The Drive could maintain a proper field now. Thank the ancestors.

But when Tali looked back to Miranda, she could only see "disappointed" etched across her face.

"Perhaps the Huragok should be more in charge of the next few tests you run," she said. "Before we start having the Slipspace Drive start generating its own field output."

"It was a minor problem, we fixed it," Tali assured. "It's why we don't rush testing."

"A Huragok still saved this test regardless," Miranda informed her. "I need to tell Shepard of what happened in any case. Hopefully you will be ready in due time."

Miranda left, not even saying a "goodbye" or "good luck", she just flipped her hair and kept walking. Tali fumed, clenching her fists hard. In her head swam a mix of angry thoughts, pounding horrendously hitting her temples. Harpy, judging bitch, perfect little XO, thinks she's better, looks down at her constantly, if she had her way... if only she could... she didn't deserve...

Her thoughts were interrupted when one of the Engineers lent a reassuring tentacle onto her shoulder. Instantly her thoughts calmed as the creature cooed at her softly. He was soon joined by the other Engineers, and Daniels and Donnelly.

"Don't let her get to you," Daniels tried to reassure the quarian. "She's hard on everyone, always has been. It's just how she runs things."

"She's harder on me," Tali grumbled. "Doesn't think I belong here. That's why I wasn't on the original list of candidates for the suicide mission. She didn't want me anywhere near this ship. Still doesn't."

"Miranda didn't make the dossiers," Donnelly stated. "And she does want you here. She's just trying to push you to be your best, I think. It's how she ran Project Lazarus."

"I am at my best," Tali declared. "I'm always at my best. I don't need her constantly judging me and second guessing every decision I make because I'm not genetically perfect."

The Huragok cooed again, patting her on the shoulder. Whatever anger she was feeling dissipated somewhat. She scratched under the Engineer's neck.

"At least I know you guys believe in me," she said sighing.

"We all do, Tali," Daniels added. "You're the brighest engineering mind in your field."

"Yeah, you've kept this ship running better than the original _Normandy_ since you got aboard," Donnelly added. "And we're not just saying all that cause you're a quarian or our friend. We're saying it because it is true and Miranda knows it too."

"And this project is proof of that," Daniels continued. "What you've accomplished is amazing, with or without the Huragok. Just... don't lose sight of that. Hell, do what you always do, use whatever is flung at you as fuel. Prove them wrong."

Tali took a breathe and clutched a bit at her temple.

"Yeah, you're right," she admitted. "I should've seen the problem in that test and corrected it before it got out of hand. I guess I'm still dealing with some stress."

"You could use a break," Donnelly agreed. "You've been working all morning since you got back from Chakwas. Take some time off, we can finish up here."

Tali just nodded.

"Alright," she relented. "Just keep me apraised on things."

"You got it, boss," Daniels assured. "We'll be ready for the real thing before long. You'll see. That will get Miranda off your back."

"I can hope," Tali sighed.

She went to leave the engineering bay, heading for the elevator. As she passed the stairwell down to Jack's hideyhole, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She peeked down below, trying to see the shadow. Something slender and waving, moving in the dark.

And then she felt something next to her, something slithering along her shoulder and a voice in her ear whispering darkly.

 **From darkness we struck to take what was denied... vengeance can be yours. It can all be yours.**

She looked to her shoulder and tried to grab what was there, pulling back and away. But where her fingers reached she found nothing, felt nothing. The voice vanished the same way and Tali looked about in a fright to see where it had come from. She grabbed at her head, pulsating now, unable to come up with a reason.

What had just happened? What was going on with her? Perhaps she should see Chakwas again, see if there was something she missed. As suddenly as the thought came, she struck it down. No, if she did that Miranda would have a legitimate reason to kick her off the project. She would not give her the satisfaction. Besides, it was nothing, just stress. She could beat this, she just needed to relax a little, decompress. She'd find a way and then she'd finish her work and everything would be fine.

It had to be.

* * *

"Then she basically said she'd replace me with a Huragok, she actually suggested that," Tali ranted. "Right to my face, she threatened my job, questioned my competance."

"Do quarians have a different meaning for the word decompress?" Kasumi asked. "Because when you said you needed some girl time to do just that, I wasn't expecting this."

"I think Tali just really likes letting down the nice girl wall once in a while," Garrus explained half-jokingly as he rummaged through the nearby bar. "It helps her unwind. That and firing shotguns into things."

Tali groaned a bit, she had wanted to let loose a bit in Kasumi's quarters, just get this all out of her system. Kas was okay with listening most of the time. She had not expected Garrus to be there to chime in every other word.

"Why are you here again?" Tali asked the turian.

"I'm looking for turian brandy," he explained. "Unification Day is coming up back home and I want to be sure I have a glass ready for when it happens. Also for later on during movie night. I'm going to see if I can convince some Marines to take in some turian culture for a change. I have a few turian historical dramas based on the Unification Wars they might actually be interested in."

"Wouldn't they have to suffer the Jackals' company to enjoy any?" Tali asked.

"You must not have heard over BBR," Kasumi cut in. "A few Marines, Soldiers and ODSTs want to set up their own viewing area in one of the many vacant rooms on the _Justice_ , since there are so many. I mean, the place is supposed to have a bigger crew. Important thing is they want a free room to watch vids and stuff themselves, like the Jackals. Holland is allowing it and supposedly it's open to everyone, even Jackals and Batarians. The _Justice_ is the neutral ship of the fleet after all."

Hopefully that wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe it would actually help breed a sense of camaraderie among the various factions. Worth a shot at least. But that wasn't really important to Tali right now.

"Back onto the subject at hand," she stated. "Miranda getting on my case."

"Miranda gets on everyone's case because she's a bit of a control freak," Garrus reminded her. "You've known that since you met her. We've all known this. She's the XO, it's part of her job. Everyone has had issues with her because of it, including me."

"I don't," Kasumi noted, still sitting on her couch with her book. "I get along with everyone, even Samara, and she feels I belong in jail. Could be worse I guess, she could want me dead."

"My point is, why has this suddenly become an issue now, Tali?" Garrus asked. "You never let her get under your skin before now."

"Well she's poked long enough for it to happen," the quarian snorted. "Before it was just little snide remarks, now it's full on inspections. I know she never wanted me on this ship. She doesn't even like me. Hasn't since we first met and she tried to take a member of the fleet away to torture for information."

"She was a different person then," Kasumi reminded. "Hero worshipped the wrong guy, she's far less xenophobic now. Plus you can't hate her too much, she's the entire reason you even have Shepard back."

"That doesn't make me and her friends," Tali insisted. "I have enough on my plate right now without her snooping over my shoulder and trying to undermine me."

"I don't think she's trying to undermine you, Tali," Garrus informed her. "Take it from me, I'm not fond of her either on the best of the days, but I know how she works. I think she knows you're under stress with everything you've placed on your shoulders these past few months. I think she's worried it might be getting to you."

"We all are, actually," Kasumi cut in, closing her book. "You do so much keeping this ship running and now you're putting your hands in every other project you can think of. Maybe she just wants to see about getting you more Huragok. A few more Engineers wouldn't hurt."

"It would make me obsolete," Tali grumbled.

"Never," Garrus assured her. "No number of hyper intelligent Bio-Synthetic tentacle creatures could ever replace THE Tali'Zorah. Not even Miranda thinks that, as much you might think she does."

Tali just sighed, taking a seat beside Kasumi and cupping her face in her hands, resting her elbows against her knees.

"This isn't really about what Miranda said to you," Kasumi told her, moving over to comfort the quarian. "This is about everything. Legion, the Forerunner tech, the Slipspace Drive, the Engineers, the Normandy, I could go on. You do so much for everyone on this ship and in this fleet, you keep removing time for yourself."

"I make time to spend with Shepard," Tali argued.

"Yeah, but that's for your boyfriend, not you," Kasumi argued. "You're a workaholic girl. Your whole race kinda is. You never really let yourself go loose as much as you should. You're almost turning into him."

Kasumi pointed to Garrus, causing him to glare at her.

"I'm loose, I'm probably the most loose person on this ship," the turian shot back.

"Please, you're always calibrating something in the gunnery," Kasumi laughed. "You're more rigid than anyone, Vakarian. That is not Tali, she knows how to have fun."

"So do I," Garrus stated. "Honestly, how can you say that knowing my background? I'm the loose cop on the edge."

"Former loose cop," Kasumi corrected. "Now you're just a gunnery officer with a cannon math fetish."

"The Thanix is an incredibly complicated piece of tech," Garrus informed her. "It's not my fault-"

"Guys," Tali shouted. "Hello? Remember me?"

Garrus sighed, clearly sorry he had gotten distracted.

"Look what Kasumi is trying to say, I think, is that you can't let your work overtake you," he explained. "Take a breath, count to ten, put some things off for another day and just try to be yourself. Disconnect, don't worry about tinkering. Just do you and stop worrying about what you have left to finish."

"It's not that easy," Tali told them. "Legion's glitch is still a problem and was probably aggravated by the fight on the _Dauntless_. They said they might have detected some process lag and even Master Chief confirms it might have happened. I won't let Legion fall victim to that systems error, I can't. And when you factor in all the work that's just been added with the relic we found and Taq thinking it will lead us to some crazy sword..."

"That is not going to go away by tomorrow even if you throw every second of the day into them," Kasumi stated firmly. "Look, a bit of time away from all that will help you reorganize your thoughts. Maybe garner a solution or two you didn't think of because you stepped back a bit."

"She's right," Garrus stated. "Even the hardest of C-Sec Detectives needed to seperate themselves from their work. Otherwise it would've destroyed them and they never would've been as effective as they were at stopping bad guys. Same goes for talented starship engineers."

Tali was clearly outnumbered if even two of her best friends were telling her to layoff. Maybe she was getting overworked and angry at nothing because of it. Question was, how did you wind down when you had wound yourself up so much?

"What do you propose I do?" She asked them.

"Jackals are having another marathon later," Kasumi suggested. "We could go check that out."

"It's not another bunch of teenagers getting murdered vids is it?" Tali asked groaning.

"No, no, that was just to get them acclimated," Kasumi assured her. "I convinced Retz to try out the Twilight Zone, the original series from the 1960s. Far more high brow, way less blood and guts."

"They don't mind the black and white?" Garrus asked. "I heard those were the only colors vids came in back then."

Kasumi just shrugged.

"Jackals don't really think much about color, visuals are good enough," Kasumi assured. "I guess that happens when the foundation for a ton of your cultural heritage is sea shanties and old pirate stories."

"Fine, I'll be there," Tali promised. "But I still have some things to do first. Legion is in dire need of a check up."

"Okay, but after that you unwind, maybe talk to Chambers, release some pressure and you meet up with me so we can travel to the fifth dimension beyond all sight and sound," Kasumi informed her. "I will hunt you down otherwise."

"I know you will," Tali relented. "And I know you're just looking out for me. But can you at least keep Miranda off my back until I get through this?"

"I'll find some things to preoccupy her," Garrus promised. "Bury her in a little paperwork and such, that sort of thing."

Tali smiled at the turian.

"You're the best, Garrus," she told him.

"Can you say that again but into an audio recorder?" He asked, queing up his omni-tool.

"And now you're terrible again," the quarian said rolling her eyes with a laugh.

* * *

The inside of the AI Core was as dimly lit as ever, but it was the best place to run Legion's diagnostic. Between Dot and EDI helping, it was thought the runtimes would complete quicker in here with the extra processing power available. It was for Tali's sake as much as Legion's. The fast this was done, the sooner she could call it a day and just try and decompress all this stress in her head. Legion was sitting processing node in the back of the room. The Geth was comtemplative, at ease, more than Tali could say for herself. Her head felt like it was running at a thousand miles per hour, but she fought through the delirium and focused on getting the job done.

"So, describe what happened," she began to ask as she set up. "You were tracking the Lead Crawler. The system said you had a clean shot."

"This assessment is correct," Legion concurred. "Records showed a ninety-two percent chance of a critical hit to hostile systems. Firing command was inputted, but no shot was logged."

"You lagged," Tali concluded. "And this time you were aware of it?"

"We have updated systems to log all failed or delayed commands," Legion explained. "A precaution in case of re-emergence of glitch error. Did not want to risk loss of time as previously."

A good preventative measure, it gave Tali more data to work on. But it did raise some concerns, not the measure itself though. It was the fact Legion hadn't actually lost any time.

"If you're remaining aware of the glitch now it's a double edged sword," she warned. "On one hand, you're aware of everything. You don't lose any information. On the other hand, you are basically now in a paralyzed state and not a coma. Which in a way is worse. The ability to be aware of everything going on around you but helpless to do anything could have severe reprecussions on your behavioral systems. It could further excerbate some of your outbursts, the one that make you violent."

"Another possibility," EDI warned. "The glitch might be trying to override preventative measures, further infecting the neural net. Legion being able to input the command, but it being blocked, poses an even greater danger than general lag of runtimes. Systems function could fail at random when most needed."

"That's what we're going to need to find out and see if we can plug up before it gets worse," Tali explained. "We have to perform a deep manual scan. A direct feed from my omni-tool into your neural net should help determine the scale of any infection from the glitch."

Tali moved from her set up, just a few feet away to open Legion's main processor for a hardline connection. The Geth, antcipating her action, Legion opened the port for her. She connected the line to Legion's port and and went back to her terminal, preparing the program to run.

"DOT prepare for a full system sweep," she informed the AI through her omni-tool. "Check neural net connectivity, hardware functions and combat system as priority."

"Affirmative, Tali'Zorah," Dot replied. "System Analysis Sweep ready to run on your command."

Tali stood over the terminal, hunched, as the process began to warm up. Her head was still swimming and she felt ill at ease, she wanted this done with quickly. Her feelings were not lost on Legion.

"Creator-Tali'Zorah, are you unwell?" It asked inquisitively.

"Just overworked," she explained. "Lot of projects going on at once."

"Perhaps we should delay this until you are at optimal capacity," Legion suggested.

"No," Tali insisted. "We're not delaying. We need information on the glitch now. We've been far too complacent, just trying to contain it. We need to work on killing it."

Legion's plates seemed to droop, Tali's visible change in tone disturbing it somewhat.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't like hearing that," Tali sighed. "I know the glitch is a touchy subject, but it's dangerous. I... I don't want to risk you getting killed for something this... stupid."

"We are concerned about the glitch," Legion assured. "But we are just as concerned about you. We do not wish for a problem that affects us solely consuming you to this degree."

"For once in over three hundred years a quarian finally cares about the well-being of a Geth," Tali grunted at him. "Please appreciate that."

"We do," Legion stated. "We cannot stress how important your concern is to us. We only hope you are not destroying yourself just to save us. That is not preferable."

Tali calmed herself, she appreciated Legion's concern. But it was getting a bit tiring to keep hearing this over and over. She was stressed, overworked, she needed to give herself a break. Fine, she got it, but half the time doing work did calm her, it did make her feel better. None of this felt normal to her. This whole thing about her cracking under pressure wasn't her. She didn't need to be told these things constantly. She didn't need everyone looking over her shoulder and acting like she was falling apart. She wasn't, she didn't crack. Not when things this important were on the line.

Luckily she didn't need to keep thinking about that, as the system sweep was ready.

"Executing scan now," she told Legion. "You'll be powered down for a bit while it runs. Safer that way."

"Understood," Legion said. "Entering stand by."

The Geth powered down as the scan took effect. Tali watched as lines of code came across her screen, technical read outs of Legion's systems. Alongside it, detailed in red, were glitched code. DOT did a good job parsing it out from the other stuff. What she could read was that EDI was right, the glitch was slowly overtaking their preventative measures, infecting that code and attempting to reassert itself. It still seemed to feel there was another program, another AI trying to interface that the neural net needed to account for. No matter what they did, the system seemed to think otherwise about what was happening in the net. To some of the systems, the glitch was being prevented from interfacing, fooled into thinking it had data to share. If they wanted to fix this, they needed to convince it otherwise.

Tali kept looking through the code, trying to find a way around this new development. Between all the runtimes and lines and processes though, it would take hours to figure out alone. She didn't have the time for that. She just wanted to find some kind of place to start for EDI.

Something caught her eye as she peered over the screen, a beeping, changing bit of wording in the code. Curious, she closed in on it. She saw a fairly defined word right there in the middle of everything.

0010101010010101

1010010101011011

0 ENEMY 1101010

1010101010100110

And just as quick as it appeared it was gone in a flash. Tali shook her head, probably a line of code from the glitch, something wrong with the sensors. That was what she thought, until a few seconds later it appeared again.

010001010011001100

CANNOT TRUST 01

011010001001010111

The code kept changing randomly like that before reverting back. Was the glitch this messed up that it was shoving thoughts into Legion's head. Was this the glitch interacting with the individual program in Legion that didn't like her?

00011011100

KILL IT 0110

11100110001

Tali tried to focus in on where the words were appearing in the code. Trying to figure out what the glitch was messing with. Maybe if she could find it she could stop it and slow things down a bit. They could get ahead of the problem.

00100111 KILL

THE GETH 001

Wait, kill the Geth? Why would the glitch be making Legion hate itself, or themselves? It no sense what so-

001101101 KILL THE

SYNTH, TALI 011010

Tali's eyes went wide in shock, her fingers coming off the board. That did not just happen. The code did not just say that. It was not talking to her.

KILL IT, 0001101100110

BEFORE IT KILLS YOU

011010100101010010101

This wasn't happening, she thought, this was a mistake.

00011101 IT HAS KILLED

YOUR PEOPLE 110101010

No, she snarled in her mind, grabbing her head.

1101010 IT WILL

KILL AGAIN 101

Tali was frantic now, almost panicking.

110110101010110

TAKE REVENGE

101101100110011

She grabbed at the controls, trying to shut this off, shut it down.

00110101000111001

DO WHAT WE DID

11110011001001101

Stop talking, she said in her mind, stop talking.

0101 YOU KNOW

WE'RE RIGHT. 01

No, no you're not, she thought. She couldn't be hearing this, she couldn't be seeing this.

01101 KILL IT NOW,

IT IS VULNERABLE 01

Stop it, she screamed inwardly, just stop it! The code changed faster now, every second, some line changing randomly.

IT DESERVES IT 001011

01101010101 THEY ALL

DESERVE IT 110101011

00100 DESTROY THEM

110101 BE FREE 0110100

0111010101100 BE MORE

Tali grabbed at the terminal and executed fail safe, halting the scan sweep before it coud be completed. The sudden halt jolted Legion out its powered down stasis and alarmed both EDI and DOT.

"Tali, why'd you halt the analysis sweep?" EDI asked concerned. "It was almost complete."

"We do not have a full map of the neural net or potential damage," DOT stated.

"Did you see anything odd in the code?" Tali asked DOT.

"Clarify, please," DOT requested.

"Words, sentences, something that shouldn't be there," Tali stated frantically. "Did you see anything?"

"Negative," DOT confirmed. "All data regular."

Tali could hear herself hyperventilating, her head still swimming. Had she imagined it all? She had to have been. She saw something, but she couldn't have. The distress she felt was clear to every AI in the room.

"I'm noting a sudden spike in your heart rate, Tali," EDI stated. "Perhaps you should lie down. I can call Doctor Chakwas to-"

"No, no, it's fine," Tali said frantically.

"The inflection in your voice suggests otherwise," Legion stated plainly.

"I said I'm fine!" Tali shouted. "EDI, restart the sweep, send the results to me later, I need to get some air."

Tali rushed out of the AI Core, leaving a rather confused Legion behind to ponder the curious shift in behavior. Tali had been so adamant to do this scan. Why had she so suddenly changed her mind?

* * *

Tali sat at the counter in the mess area, doing her best not to look back at the AI core. What was happening to her? Why was she seeing these things? Maybe she was sick, Chakwas just hadn't picked it up because it wasn't your normal virus. She shook her head, no that's not how quarian biology worked. No virus would give you hallucinations but no fever or other symptoms. Her body would warn her if she was sick like that.

She couldn't deny though that she had seen something that EDI and DOT had not. She doubted that was due to an error on her part. She was stuck with the possibility that for whatever reason she was now seeing things. She remembered the last time that happened, how it happened. Back on Halo, in the swamp. The thought of why that happened filled her with fear.

It couldn't be that though, she thought. This isn't like that. Again, back then she had a fever, her body was seizing up, she felt physically weak, she was in constant pain. None of that was happening to her now save for headaches. Mordin and Chakwas had both assured her that every single Flood Spore was eradicated before it could do any real harm to her. Their shock treatment worked.

Then again, there was that experience she felt on the return trip to the _Truth and Reconciliation_. When her mind seemed to reach out and warn of her the existince of some highly dangerous Flood organism aboard. They found it, infecting Captain Keyes, and the Master Chief killed it. It shot a pain through her as the monstrosity died, but that was it. As soon as it was gone her head cleared and her mind felt more at ease. There was the suggestion that this was her body adapting to the intrusion into her mind by the Flood. Some kind of psychic resonance that triggered her fight or flight instincts, or whatever Mordin had rationalized it as. She didn't experience a single hallucination or anything of note during the event. It couldn't be that. It couldn't have anything to do with what happened between her and the Flood.

But the similarities were all there to plain to see and it made Tali shiver at the very thought of it all. Her mind plagued by the Flood again. Visions of horror haunting her once more. Reality and nightmare becoming indistinguishable. She could not go through that again. She had to tell someone, she had to...

No, she declared to herself, no she didn't. She wasn't going to give Miranda an excuse to ground her. She could use this to leverage against her. She'd suggest she be locked in sickbay, maybe quarantined. Hell, Tali wouldn't put it past Lawson suggesting she be thrown into stasis and left there. She'd love that, the perfect way to get rid of her.

This wasn't the Flood, it couldn't be. She could fix this, she could fix anything, she just had to figure out what was wrong with her. Maybe it was just stress, maybe it just had to do with the headaches or something. She could figure this out and then everything would be normal again.

A bottle of something was suddenly placed in front of her, she looked to see Gardner standing over her.

"Soda water," he informed her. "Don't worry, safe for dextros. I'd offer something harder but I hear thats a bit of a problem for your people. Either way, you look like you could use it."

"Thanks, Gardner," Tali sighed, pulling the bottle over. "Today has been weird is all."

"When isn't it?" He asked jovially.

Something prevented her from elaborating more. Something kept her from talking more on the specifics. She refused to look insane in front of anyone. She would not look like a crazy lady. She couldn't remain silent either though.

"Gardner," she spoke up, fidgetting with the bottle in her hand. "Am I a workaholic?"

She had no idea why, out of all the questions on her mind, that was the one that worked its way out. Why of all questions was that the one she asked? It didn't matter, it caught Gardner's attention.

"Nothing wrong with working hard in my mind," he explained. "I know you quarians are big on that. One of your best qualities in my mind. Then again I'm old, I guess I think most everyone younger than me is especially lazy so anyone who breaks that mould gets my approval. Why you ask?"

"I guess it has just been a thing that has been nagging at me all day," Tali relented. "Everyone says I'm pushing myself too hard, that I'm overstressed, letting work get to me. It's just person after person keeps saying I need to take a break or something and I'm wondering if I have a problem. Maybe I do bury myself in jobs too much."

"Uh, you sure you wanna bring this to me?" Gardner asked a bit befuddled. "I'm sure Chambers could help you with this more."

"No, no," Tali sighed. "If I stop now it's probably not going to get brought up again. The thing is, when you're in the Migrant Fleet, work is life. You're constantly repairing ships, constantly fixing things, doing menial tasks, researching new tech, refining old tech. You're always busy... and me especially so."

Gardner settled in, he may have admitted he was not cut out for this, but he was making an effort. Tali was happy for that much at least. So she continued.

"Being the Admiral's daughter, you couldn't expect special treatment," she explained. "In fact, there was more pressure. I didn't want to look like I wanted a free ride or anything. I wanted to work for it, earn whatever I got. To prove to everyone my value to the fleet... to prove to dad I..."

She choked up a bit, Gardner just nodded understanding her point without her needing to say it outloud.

"We all want to prove something to our parents I guess," he admitted. "It's either to spite them or to earn their gratitude or whatever, but we all want some kind of approval from them. Some admission we've done good. I remember when I was young, old man refused to let me near a stove. 'You'll burn half your skin off' or 'you'll poison the whole family', but I just became more determined because of that. One day I actually managed to cook the best damn steak ever. Better than anything he made, everyone else said so. He didn't though... he just nodded, more or less. I guess I figured that was enough. He let me keep cooking after that at least."

Tali smiled a bit, but it was a bit of a sour one in her mind. Gardner was lucky, she never even got that from her father. She was never that accepted, never acknowledged that way. And now she never would be.

"I guess after a while I just got so hooked into doing whatever I could to impress him that overworking myself became natural," she confessed at last. "I never thought it would catch up to me like this."

"Look, I ain't no psychologist, but I'll tell you now, it's probably not that," Gardner stated pretty firmly. "Too damn simple in my book."

"It sounds like it's the most logical answer," Tali replied, her tone low and moping. "I mean, it would explain why I've been feeling like crap more often than usual these past few days."

"Yeah, but everyone knows how much you've stretched yourself before and after all this crazy stuff got thrust into your lap," Gardner informed her. "In my honest opinion, there's more to what you're feeling than just a few missing sleep cycles and your super busy schedule. That's some crappy movie cliche from back in my day. If relaxing and easing off was all you needed, according them you should already have the solution. Namely going upstairs to see the Commander, if you know what I mean."

Tali rolled her eyes, but laughed a bit all the same.

"Yeah, I doubt that would solve all my problems," she concurred playfully. "Although it might be worth a shot. I'm sure Wade would be up to it at least."

Gardner returned the laugh.

"Laughing about it is a good start though," he told her. "You want some real advice? Do try to relax a bit more, ease up, it will help. But when you can, work through the problem. Figure out what it is that's making you feel so damn low all of a sudden. Talk it out with yourself mostly, or anyone who will listen. Only you can decide what's best for you in the end."

"Good advice," Tali agreed. "But I'd like to know where to start. Why do I feel this way? How come I'm feeling so tired and worn out and angry every other minute?"

"Hey, like I said, no psychologist here," Gardner reminded her. "But if you can figure out how to increase this tub's shields and integrate two different methods of interstellar travel, a bit of introspective self-reflection should be a cakewalk for you, kiddo."

Tali smiled more genuinely this time.

"Thanks, Gardner," she told him. "That means a lot."

"Don't mention it," he grinned. "Seriously though, don't mention it. I need these jerks to keep thinking I'm a crusty old grump so they'll leave me the hell alone."

"My lips are sealed," Tali laughed softly.

Gardner walked away, leaving Tali once more with her thoughts. And the soda water of course. Perhaps there was something deeper to all this, why she was feeling like a walking pile of crap half the time. If she was this overstressed that she was seeing things, perhaps something more than just working too hard was the cause of things. She needed more time to think, to figure what was really bothering her. She imagined it would take more than just her talking to herself incessantly. Kelly was always there to talk, Gardner had more or less suggested that was where she should go. Just an hour, how long would it really take just to get some things off her chest?

Before she could make a final decision, in strode Thane and Jack suddenly. Jack was talking abrasively and loudly, as per usual. Thane was being contemplative and attentive, again, normal. Tali had noticed the two kept spending time together for some reason. She imagined their shared experience in the swamp on Halo had something to do with it. She knew her time there had left an indelible impression. She mostly let them be, wasn't her business anyway. The only really weird part that made her cock her head a bit, was how friendly Jack sounded when they were together. Well, as far Jack could be considered friendly.

"So that's when the whole damn container fucking flips, just ass over end over and over. I'm able to avoid it hitting me because I use my biotics in time, but it still keeps going and slams right into the fucking Blue Suns anyway! Fucking hilarious, I had next to nothing to do with it, save for the fact the missile completely missed in the first place."

"You have had some rather strange bar crawls in your life, Jack," Thane informed her.

"Nah, you know Omega," Jack chortled. "That's just Tuesday, man. You want an epic night out story? I rammed into the wall of this dive once with an escape pod. There's a whole other story as to why I was in the pod of course, you see I had snuck aboard this elcor cruiser..."

That was when Jack noticed Tali and shushed up.

"Oh, uh, hey there, Zorah," she greeted. "Getting your nose out of the grindstone for once?"

"Taking a break, yes," Tali responded, somewhat annoyed.

"Oh good, no offense, but you've been keeping me up lately with your tinkering," Jack claimed. "I mean, those walls down there are a lot thinner than you think."

"She means you've been working harder than usual, Tali," Thane corrected. "We've all noticed it."

"Yes, as everyone keeps saying," Tali stated, a bit curt in her statement.

She began digging for something in one of her pouches, but Jack had already picked up on the nerve that had been tread upon.

"Hey, come on, I'm just busting your chops a bit," Jack tried to reassure her. "No need to get bent out of shape over it."

"I'm fine," Tali insisted, pulling her bottle close. "Absolutely fine. I'm just trying to work through some things, that is all."

"Well, you quarians are all about problem solving," Jack replied aloofly. "Can't be that hard to work through. Unless you're having a burnout of course."

"I. Am Not. Burned. Out." Tali informed Jack, gripping her botttle tighter. The ex-con's words had echoed too closely to Miranda's from earlier in the day. Even Jack seemed a bit caught off guard by the more assertive tone.

They didn't keep her from talking though.

"Geez, relax, Zorah," Jack requested. "I was just saying-"

"You were letting your mouth run, like you always do," Tali grumbled as she fixed the bottle's lid, slowly inserting the emergency induction port into it. "It's fine, you have no filter. What else would I expect from you?"

Tali's curt tone became more pronounced. While Thane remained concerned, Jack's grimace returned quickly and promptly.

"What's your damage, girl?" She demanded to know. "I was trying to apolo-"

"I don't care," Tali snarled at her. "I really don't care. I have a million thoughts in my head and a million problems that you don't have to deal with because you don't want to. Just keep chatting up Thane about your reckless excursions and leave me alone. Okay? I'm not in the mood for another damn lecture about this or that, I just want quiet so I can think this through on my own. It's not your problem, so leave me alone and get back to trying to get into Krios' pants or whatever is you're interested in with him."

Jack's ire was completely lit up at this point, but Tali had no time for it. She rushed past the two of them, taking her drink with her.

"Alright, enjoy your little sodey with a bendy straw then, Precious," Jack called out. "See if I give a shit anymore!"

"Emergency Induction Port and I don't give a shit if you do!" Tali answered back just as viciously.

Tali entered the elevator, leaving an irate Jack and beffudled Thane behind.

"The fuck was that about?" Jack asked, still angry but equally confused. "Always the friggin nice ones, right?"

"You may have unintentionally antagonized her," Thane explained. "You shouldn't blame her entirely."

"Hey, I did nothing wrong, Lizard-Lips," Jack argued. "If anything I was trying to cheer her up. Friendly banter and all that crap. Not my fault she took it the wrong way."

"You did nothing wrong, but that's no reason to think less of her," Thane explained. "I can tell Tali is worked up about something personal. Something I don't think is isolated to just work. You should try to be more considerate to that if you can."

"It's not my place to be her therapist anymore than it is hers to be mine," Jack insisted, crossing her arms. "I mean, what was with that shit about me trying to get into your pants? I mean come on, that was low, especially for her. She's fucking the Commander. Who cares who or what I do? Even if I was interested in that, not her place to criticize."

Thane raised a brow at that.

"So... is there something wrong with the idea?" Thane asked.

"No!" Jack suddenly responded. "I mean, I'm just saying I'm not interested in that thing! It's not personal, it's just... why are we bringing this up?"

"We didn't, you did," Thane reminded her. "That specific comment is getting to you that much?"

"I told you, no," Jack repeated. "It doesn't bother me! I just feel it was a low blow is all! I don't bring up her love life! I mean, I'm not saying I even have one, I'm not looking for one. Not with you anyway."

Thane looked a bit curiously at Jack.

"The idea of sleeping with me seems to put you off a bit," he informed her.

"It doesn't," Jack stated, sounding more and more flumoxed. "I mean, I don't really care one way or the other. It's just... well that's not why I'm hanging out with you, okay? I'm not here for a quickie or some other shit. I just hang with you, we're cool. That's all! Hell, me sleeping with you isn't the point! My point is... I just... my point is I shouldn't have to... She... Arggh!"

Jack stomped away suddenly.

"Where are you going now?" Thane asked, even more confused.

"Now I need to clear my head," she grumbled.

"Um, okay," Thane relented. "If you need to talk more-"

"I don't need to talk more about screwing you! We're never talking about me screwing you!" Jack insisted loudly. "Never again! Ever!"

Jack was already gone before Thane could correct her, tell he didn't mean "talk about sex." He had just meant talk in general. He sighed briefly.

"Too bad, I really wanted to know what she was doing on the Elcor Cruiser."

* * *

After her experience in the galley with Thane and Jack, Tali didn't want to talk to anyone. Especially not about her problems. She'd save that for later, when she wasn't in as much of a funk or as angry as she was now. She did not want to deal with any of this nonsense, she just wanted to forget things. That meant getting as far away from the ship as possible, clear her head. She contacted Kasumi as she stepped out of the _Normandy_.

"Kas, it's Tali," she began. "How long until that _Twilight Zone_ marathon thing?"

" _Still a while, why?"_ Her friend asked in response.

"No reason, just letting you know I'm going to be there for sure now, and early."

" _Awesome!"_ Kasumi encouraged. _"Trust me, a few hours with Rod Serling and you'll be right as rain. Promise!"_

"One can hope, see ya then, Kas," Tali sighed, shutting the comm off.

Well, now she was committed to something, that was good. Perhaps that was all she needed, a goal to set herself on, an idea to focus in on. Get her mind as far away from this other crap as possible.

The further she got away though, the more her head didn't seem to want to let what happened go. Why had she gone off on Jack like that? That wasn't like her at all. The ex-Con hadn't even really done anything, not intentionally. Getting angry with her had done nothing really resolve things and it didn't make her feel better. Instead it just made her feel worse.

Jack was not the source of her anger, it wasn't fair to lash out at her like she did. That was the inescapable conclusion she couldn't help but reach. She had been in the wrong back there, plain and simple.

Whatever regrets she had gained from a clearer head were suddenly put on the backburner though. As she passed through the hangar bay, she caught sight of Miranda. The XO was talking with Kat, of all people. She wasn't sure why, but she stayed out of it for the moment. Mostly she just tried not to look at her. Better to not start something again, not after what happened to Jack. She was in no mood for another stupid outburst, she already felt bad enough.

Miranda did notice her standing there as she walked away, but engaged in no conversation. There was a slight acknowledgement that Tali existed and then she kept walking. That gave the quarian her moment, she went over to Kat to find out more about what had been going on. The Spartan noticed her approach instantly.

"Tali, you're out of the _Normandy_ ," she observed. "That's becoming rare."

"Busy with work, I'm sure we all are," Tali explained. "What were you and Miranda talking about?"

"Lawson and I were just talking a bit about Reach and the upcoming mission there," Kat explained. "Chief wants all Spartans to head down with him of course, so she's just working through some of the technical aspects of the operation with me. Nothing serious, just getting down some possible scenarios to expect when we arrive."

'What scenarios?' Tali thought, as the chances were that the whole place was likely going to be one giant ball of glass. Tali supposed some structures would be intact of course, but not many. It did make her think of one thing though.

"Is Miranda going to be headed down to Reach then?" She asked Kat.

"She isn't sure yet," Kat explained plainly. "She's working through some squad recommendations for Shepard to look over, but he'll have final say of course."

If she doesn't fudge the reports to force her own stupid bias of course, Tali thought to herself, inwardly growling. She thought she was being subtle, but Kat seemed to notice something off about her. Maybe it was her arms being folded, or her general posture, or the fact Tali kept eyeing the direction Miranda had left in.

"Any reason you're asking?" Kat finally questioned.

"Nothing specific," Tali stated. "Just curious I guess."

Kat probably didn't buy that, Tali knew it from the second the words exited her mouth. She was not good at lying.

"You worried you're going to be left out of the mission because you're too busy?" The Spartan asked innocently.

"There might be other factors," Tali grimaced in response.

Kat just nodded.

"You don't particularly like Lawson, do you?" She prodded lightly.

Tali just sighed, forgoing cliche attempts to avoid the question and just accepted the fact that she had more or less been asking for this. She was asking for this the second she started talking to Kat. Avoiding it would not help anyone.

"Ever since we've met, it has been tense," Tali explained, sounding tried. "There was this colony we were on, everyone had been taken by some invaders, it's a long story. I was there with a team that was trying to recover a quarian who had gone there on his pilgrimage. When we found him, he was traumatized, scared for his life. But because his omni-tool had information on the attack, Miranda wanted to stick him in an interrogation cell! A traumatized kid who had survived a horrific ordeal and she wanted to stuff him in a small room to force more info out of them that he didn't have."

"What happened in the end?" Kat asked inquisitively.

"Shepard convinced her to drop it, that they only needed his omni-tool," Tali sighed. "But Miranda still looked disappointed she hadn't been able to torture someone that day."

"That might be reading a bit much into things," Kat cautioned.

"It was what I felt at the time," Tali clarified. "When I actually got to know her better, I still didn't like her. She'd prefer if I never stepped foot on the _Normandy_ in the first place. I can tell, she thinks I'm incompetant or a waste of resources or whatever reason she can come up with."

"You sure there aren't other reasons you dislike her?" Kat asked.

Tali looked away, her posture becoming less upright and more guarded. She wanted to say no, but she couldn't lie to Kat, she already knew that.

"Maybe there are others," she confessed. "More personal reasons. You know how it is in a very tight group, everything is more personal. Being a quarian just enhances that problem further."

"Does Shepard factor into any of this?" Kat pressed further.

Tali said nothing, which was as good as admitting it anyway. She knew well enough by now that Kat had her suspicions about her and Shepard. She hadn't said anything, Tali didn't know why. She hoped it meant she was fine with it or she just didn't care either way. She was grateful for the respect towards their privacy at least.

"I don't think you have to worry about her at this point, honestly," Kat explained. "I imagine she's already figured out where she's not allowed to tread."

"Doesn't mean she hasn't given up in some way," Tali stated. "Look, I don't want to sway your opinion on her or anything and I don't want you to take on my baggage. I'm sorry I even brought this up. Whatever is going on between me and Miranda isn't something you have to deal with."

"Maybe not, but I'd suggest you figure things out for yourself soon," Kat warned. "It's not healthy to walk around with those kind of thoughts. Especially not in a combat situation. Not to say you wouldn't do anything that would compromise things because of Lawson, I'm just saying it's not good to hold onto that."

"I get it, I get it," Tali relented. "I'll figure this out, don't you worry."

Tali left another of her friends, her mind still swimming with her angry thoughts and regrets. Kat was right, she needed to confront this sooner or later. The last thing she wanted was for Miranda to use this against her somehow after all. So, one way or another, she'd have to resolve this... once and for all.

* * *

 _"It's a cook book!"_

Of course it was, Tali thought. Of all the things to subjugate the human race with, it was a pun that was the final nail. It would almost be funny if it wasn't so horrifying. Zek had a different opinion though.

"Ugh, why do so many sapients want to eat humans?" He grimaced. "I'm not surprised Jiralhanae do, but I figured most everyone else had more sense and the unggoy weren't that stupid. They all need better taste."

"How would you know we'd taste bad?" Kasumi asked suspiciously.

"It's the smell," Retz explained. "You're too, what's the word I'm looking for... clean, I guess."

"We smell too clean?" Kasumi asked. "Even Zaeed?"

"He's oversimplfying," Zek corrected. "You don't have the same kind grunge or aroma we associate with good eats. Any Jackal who eats a human is pretty much a bottom feeder, no real class. We only serve quality aboard this tub. Like Grilled Selter Slug, now that is food."

Tali kept quiet, Kasumi was probably used to these lines of conversation. She wasn't interest in morbid curiosities, especially not now. She was still nursing a swimming head and only focusing on this old show seemed to help even in the slightest.

The Twilight Zone was certainly better than the murder fest from the other night. The series explored various high concept ideas. For the time period it was made in, it was pretty progressive. Exploring themes of fear, loss, social disconnection, race, religion, the nature of good and evil, all interesting stuff. There was soom good episodes so far, the mannequin one was pretty disturbing, so was the creepy doll. Thankfully no spiders so far, at least not as the main subject. She wouldn't have been able to stay if spiders were involved.

"I keep thinking about that poor guy from the last one," Zek spoke up again as the credits on the latest episode rolled. "I mean, he just wanted to read a damn book or two. Why did the world hate him so much?"

"If only they had vision correction technology more widely available back then," Retz sighed. "He could've had a happy ending after all."

"He could probably stick it really close to his eyes," Kasumi offered. "Not comfortable, but he could at least sorta read the words."

"Ms. Zorah, can a quarian's visor on their helmet act as a pair of glasses?" Retz asked.

"Uh, yeah," Tali replied. "We can switch out the glass for a proper prescription. Some can even adjust slightly. But that's not really a big concern honestly. Gene therapy has given pretty much everyone twenty-twenty vision."

"Once again, another reason to be happy we're in the glorious modern age of genetic engineering," Retz declared.

"I'll drink to that!" Zek concurred.

"You'll drink to anything," Kasumi reminded him.

"Hey, so long as I got an excuse," Zek replied, before pouring more ichor into his mouth.

Tali only really spoke up whenever someone directly asked her a question. She wanted to remain as focused on the holoscreen as possible. The more she focused, the less her head seemed to hurt. If she lost herself in the narrative, she could avoid the crap feeling she had. She could look normal, long enough for this ridiculous headache to pass.

"Even if the stories might seem dated, their message feels timeless," Kasumi cut in. "They just work as powerful little snippets about social issues, our anxieties and fears. That's what makes a good story last really, when it can comment on things that are still relevant to us."

"I think the Maple Street Monster episode was a bit too on the nose for our situation," Zek noted. "Well, maybe not an exact replication of things, but fairly close. Trust and all that, you know?"

"The Mannequin one was very surreal," Retz added. "Very big on the head trip, the nature of reality and memory. A lot of layers to that one."

"You got any favorites so far, Tali?" Kasumi asked.

Tali gave it a moment's thought before settling on a choice.

"I guess there was something beautifully tragic about the man who just wanted to go to a simpler time," Tali admitted. "A better time, one that wasn't going to run him down."

"That is a good one," Zek agreed. "Forgive me though, I thought you were gonna go for the story about the ugly people who think they're beautiful."

"I'm not that predictable," Tali countered. "But that one was good too. With a good message."

Truth was, she liked being reminded of said lesson. It kept her thoughts at ease, told her what she already knew. That nothing would change what had happened and no one could take it away from her. It made her anger subside ever so slightly.

"Well another classic is coming up next," Kasumi assured. "You're going to love this one ,you guys. Trust me."

The intro sequence was already starting, a spiraling tunnel twirling into the vastness of space as the voice of Rod Serling welcomed them back to the Twilight Zone again. All at once, despite the forboding tone, Tali felt more at ease. At long last, the marathon of old black and white vids had finally worked its magic. She settled in to her seat, finally comfortable, ready to just enjoy the episode in full.

Rod Serling appeared himself on the screen, standing in front of a map of what was once known as the United States.

 _"Tonight's episode of the Twilight Zone is somewhat unique. It calls for a different kind of introduction."_

Suddenly, the holoscreen began to flicker and stretch strangely. Was there something wrong with the file? Tali just hoped it would pass quickly, that they wouldn't be watching static constantly. Instead, when the picture became clear, the map behind Serling had changed. It was now a planet, the quarian home planet, Rannoch.

 _"You might recognize the map behind me as a depiction of Rannoch,"_ Serling continued. _"Three hundred years ago it was home to a noble civilization, but then one day, something happened. The inhabitants of this world were forced to flee by their own ungrateful creations."_

Tali was a confused at first, but now she was more concerned, this was not normal. None of this felt normal. Did anyone else see this? Why wasn't she abel to tear her eyes away? Why couldn't she look to Kasumi to ask her if she was seeing this too?

 _"Little did they know that they shared their undesirable fate with that of another race,"_ Serling continued. _"One that was equally betrayed, equally usurped by those beneath them. Unlike the former species, however, they took more charge of their destiny. They created something terrible, horrifying, and monstrous enough, that in its ravenous hatred and hunger... it would drag the unworthy into the depths of decay and darkness. Forcing them to commit the most egregious of sins, that no one since has surpassed."_

The image faded to one of the Halo Array, of a light spreading across the galaxy, wiping out all before it. Tali was paralyzed with fright, as Serling's face returned, staring directly into her.

 _"Oh yes, I did forget someone didn't I? I almost forgot to introduce you to the one this creation now speaks to,"_ he explained. _"The one who will bring about a new terror. That will soon embrace a new path and lead her own people towards it."_

The pictured turned again and this time Tali went white with fear. There she was, on the screen, swinging on a little fence door.

 _"This is you, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy,"_ Serling stated. _"You are now a conduit for something far greater than yourself. Within your mind your anger feeds its influence. And when that influence reaches its peak, watch out. Because the new mind behind your silver eyes will be absolutely in charge. Welcome to your Twilight Zone, Tali'Zorah."_

Tali's breathing became more heightened, pronounced. She felt a lump in her throat, scratching, thumping, clawing. The images on the screen turned, still black and white, showing her with her crew. But they weren't in the _Normandy_ , they were in some kind of house.

 _"Jack shouldn't have thought those mean thoughts about me,"_ the Tali on the screen said. _"That's why I made her go on fire!"_

There was a brief flash on the screen, of Jack screaming in flames. Tali brought her hands up to her face in horror, but couldn't force herself to pull her eyes away.

 _"I don't like Legion, anymore,"_ Tali on the screen claimed. _"I make him dead now. Legion! You be dead!"_

Legion's crushed head and body appeared on screen, broken and torn to bits. More scenes followed, more small snippets of pain and death, Tali at the center of all of them. Before long, Tali was staring down Miranda.

 _"Someone grab a bottle or a lamp and end this!"_ Miranda shouted in fear.

 _"You're a bad woman! A real bad woman! And you keep thinking real bad thoughts about me!"_ Tali's screen counterpart accused. _"He's mine! You can't have him! I won't let you!"_

In the next instant, Miranda's head was done up like a clown, wobbling from some kind of spring. Tali wanted to scream, but nothing came out. And then Rod Serling appeared again.

 _"A glimpse of the future, even if embellished,"_ he explained. _"Just a small taste of what your rage will bring. You will be like us and you will see that you can be so much more. We can make you all so much more."_

Tali brought her hands up to cover her eyes, but instead found no hands. Just tentacles, slimy, disgusting tentacles. The same she saw on the combat forms, growing out of her own arms! She began hyperventilating, still unable to scream. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She shrieked slightly and looked over to see Kasumi staring at her, concerned.

"Tali? You okay?" She asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"Was the episode that scary?" Zek asked. "I'm not fond of creepy kids myself."

Tali looked at the screen, it was the closing credits. She had missed, and yet seemingly had not missed, the entire episode. Her hands were normal, but she did not feel it at all. She was shaking now, she wanted out, fast.

"I... I gotta go," she said nervously.

"Tali, what-"

"I just gotta go, Kas, I'm sorry," Tali said frantically. "I'm... I'm just sorry."

She couldn't think straight, she had to run. She had to get back to the _Normandy_ , she had to get out of here. Something was horribly wrong with her and she needed to stop it before it was too late.

* * *

Tali felt sick, sicker than if she had gotten over a dozen simultaneous suit breaches. She wanted to vomit, but couldn't even bring herself to do that. Her whole body wanted the seize up, but she pushed it on. The pit in her stomach grew with every step. She kept looking over her shoulder or in the corner of her eyes, dreading what she might see there. All the while, she could hardly think, but she could remember the freakish daymare she had. As cryptic and strange as it sounded, the more she thought about it, the more parts of it made some kind of strange sense.

She couldn't sort through it on her own though, she needed help. There was only one person who could get her that very help though, the only other Forerunner expert in this fleet. She made a beeline for her study quarters on the _Ascendant Justice_ , after the Syndicate attack she felt even less safe staying too long on the _Fallen Serpent_. She also wanted to be close to the relic of power, currently held in isolation within one of the many vacant rooms aboard the _Justice._ If anyone could tell her if the nightmares' messages had any merit, it was Taq.

Tali didn't bother knocking, she rushed in through the door to find Taq. She was still awake, pulling an all nighter it seemed. Her terminal was filled with information and data streams. Tali tried not to look at it, fearful of what this one might have on it. Taq didn't look away though, but she knew who had barged in.

"This is what I get for picking the one room on this ship with a broken lock a Huragok hasn't gotten to yet," the jackal bemoaned. "Hello, Tali, did you want something?"

"I'm sorry for rushing in so late, but I needed to speak to you," the quarian quickly explained. "I wanted to ask you some questions about the Forerunners."

Taq's interest was suddenly piqued. She turned from her terminal, looking curiously at the quarian.

"Why not look in that journal for answers?" She asked. "It has quite a bit of information the way I hear it."

"If you think I'm an expert, hardly," Tali corrected her. "I'm more a student than anything, just barely getting to know their technology. You know more about them as a people, their history. That's what I want to talk about."

"Any specific subject?" Taq questioned further.

"Yes, but it might seem like an odd one at first," Tali explained cautiously, wary that she was probably about to sound crazy. "The Forerunners, do you know anything about their society before they ruled the galaxy?"

Taq scratched her beak, contemplating the question.

"You mean, what they were like before they started looking like Gods to the casual outside observer?" She replied, keenly interested.

"Yes," Tali answered frantically. "To get really specific, did they have any enemies?"

Taq seemed to grin at that.

"Enemies? From before the Flood showed up you mean? Hmm, more than likely," she admitted. "Not many religiously motivated scholars care to suggest the Forerunners were ever weak or had to claw their way up to the galactic throne. Chances are though there were other civilizations before them and the Forerunners themselves stole their position from someone before them. From a society they had to crush or pick up the pieces of when it collapsed."

"Does this mystery civilization have a name?" Tali asked.

"Why would it? No one can say if it exists or not," Taq laughed slightly. "There's no record, no remains, nothing. If they did exist, I imagine the Forerunners wiped out any evidence of them. Standard procedure, make everyone forget your enemies, rewrite history, Forerunners weren't above that spin doctoring I imagine."

"But to the people who believe they existed once," Tali pressed further. "Do they have a name?"

"No specific one," Taq answered thoughtfully. "I keep hearing a few things tossed around among the heretic types now and then. At least the ones who run in my circles anyway. The layman's hypothesis of the theory is that before the Forerunners there was a Precursor race. So, a lot of people call this supposed hypothetical civilization the Precursors. But again, there isn't much evidence they ever existed."

No evidence except the creepy voices in her head. That wasn't something she wanted to share with Taq right now. She needed to keep playing this cool. As cool as you could when you were freaking out about something going wrong inside of you.

"But, is it possible they did exist? That, maybe, the reason the Forerunners got all their impressive technology was because they might have stolen it or built it off what these Precursors made? Perhaps that's why you never found any evidence, it all looks like Forerunner to you."

Taq looked intrigued.

"It's an interesting hypothesis, but while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, it is a stretch," she explained. "That's basically saying, we can't confirm this exists because someone else made it look like something else. It's a bit muddled."

"Okay, but just suppose they did exist," Tali continued to impress upon her. "Their civilization used to rule, but the Forerunners surplanted them. How would they react?"

"You're getting into social science here, that's a bit outside my expertise," Taq explained. "If a cilization begins to fall, there's little they can do about it. Except maybe course correct policies, but if they were beaten militarily, no dice there. If the Forerunners overwhelmed the Precursors, then any survivors would probably have feelings of old glory brewing in their heads. A lost cause they would have to reclaim from those who wronged them, no matter how long it would take."

"Like sitting on a Flotilla constantly planning how to retake their homeworld?" Tali asked mumbling.

Taq got up from her desk from that and moved over to the quarian from across the room.

"Does this have something to do with your species' predicament?" She asked. "I understand you lost your homeworld. Although the specifics elude me."

"It's complicated," Tali confessed. "But that is part of why I'm asking. I guess I'm just thinking about lost civilizations more. With everything that has gone on."

"I guess, it's just a little overly specific," Taq explained. "And sudden, of course. In any case, I imagine we don't have to worry about supposed Precursors these days. They're all long dead by now, that's a given."

Maybe so, but Tali wasn't so sure anymore. As Taq went back to her seat, the bird looked back at her briefly.

"Tali, are you certain everything is alright?" She pressed. "You seem a bit frazzled."

"No, I'm fine," Tali tried to lie. "Absolutely fine, just curious. I'll let you get back to your work."

The truth was though that Tali was concerned. What Taq was talking about, it rang way too closely to her own people. Which in turn matched far too closely to the nightmares. If these Precursors were real, and the visions were right... they did something unforgivable. Something the quarians could one day do themselves if they weren't careful.

She made to leave the room, to try and sort this whole thing out. But when the door opened there was just a black sickly void staring back at her. She froze in place, shaking as she looked on. Why did this keep happening to her? What did they want? Why were they torturing her like this?

 **All are welcome in the grave. All are welcome in the tomb. There is room for all.**

Another voice, clawing in her head, screaming it was there, answering her question. A sicly black tentacle reached out and grabbed at her arm. She blinked for only a moment in fright and when she opened her eyes again, the void was gone. She wasn't in Taq's room any more at least, she recognized the area though. She was near the _Normandy's_ hangar section, where it was in port. She had walked all the way here from Taq's room in seconds, but that was impossible.

"Another blackout," she growled. "More lost time."

She needed to figure this out, it was clear to her now what was happening. She was losing herself more and more.

* * *

Once more, Tali sat in the Crew Quarters' eating area, only this time at the table. She had taken some nutripaste to eat, hoping it would clear her head a little. She needed to figure out exactly what these visions and why they were happening to her now. There had to be a reason, she just needed to think it out.

If what Taq had told her was true, then the likely subject of these dreams revolved around the Precursors. If they actually existed of course, but at this point Tali decided to presume they did exist. Otherwise they couldn't be screwing with her now. So if they were real, the Forerunners had beat them. Some or all of the survivors couldn't accept that, so they decided to strike back. For some reason, the visions had latched onto that desire for revenge and connected it with the quarians and their conflict with the Geth. That much was obvious.

What was a bit more troubling were the implications of the means the Precursors used for their revenge. Everything in the visions seemed to spell out what it was plainly. The thing that clinched though was how similar the message was to what she experienced in the swamp on Halo. When the Infection Form infected her with spores. The connection was pretty self-evident from that alone. The Precursors and the Flood were connected somehow. Their adventure on the _Dauntless_ had proven the Forerunners could alter themselves into digital beings. What if the Precursors did the same but into a different organic creature?

It seemed so outlandish, insane even. To not only alter yourself for revenge, but to become something so monstrous, so absolutely evil. How did you possibly justify that to yourself? How could anyone? But part of the theory didn't make sense. If the Flood were once something else, another race, why did they still have a desire to destroy and assimilate more? Their enemy was dead, the purpose of their creation accomplished. Why had they still been so intent on continuing? Did they just not know or, more likely, did they not care?

None of that answered why this was happening now, to her. Yes, she had similar visions in the swamp, but those were compounded by a fever and how close to death she was. She wasn't sick now, not physically anyway. Why was this happening now? Had something aggravated her? Was it the stress like everyone was saying?

Mordin had said the encounter with the Flood Spores had left an indeliable mark on her psyche. Her mind now seemed to warn her of the Flood and their danger. That was how she helped Shepard and the team navigate to find Captain Keyes after all. Was this a side effect? Were the Flood here then? No, that didn't make sense, she didn't have the same feeling like she did before. So what else could've triggered this?

She went to eat some more nutripaste out of the tube, maybe just a little more food would help her break through to an answer. However, her train of thought was interrupted when someone sat down from across her, banging her open palms on the table. Tali looked up and saw Jack staring at her, a serious expression on her face.

"We need to talk," she stated.

"Jack, I'm sorry for blowing up at you, but not now," she requested. "I'm not in the right frame of-"

Jack didn't listen, she was already sitting down, a scowl on her face.

"Look, I get you don't like me," she admitted. "Not many people do."

"I... I don't dislike you, Jack," Tali tried to plead. "Honest, I like you fine. I was just working though something before and-"

"Look forget about that then," Jack insisted. "I was pushing your buttons, that was uncool. If you like me, then even more cool. Right now I need to talk to you though, trust me, it's important."

More important than her potentially going insane, Tali wondered to herself. She shook her head, she'd let Jack talk. After what had happened earlier, Tali felt like she owed it to the ex-con after blowing up on her before.

"I'm working through some shit, you see," Jack began. "Like some major shit. Trying to figure out some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Tali asked.

"I don't know, stupid stuff I haven't thought about in years," Jack explained. "Things that you can't afford to happen. To let it get to you because it's going to get you killed in the end. Like relations and attaching to things and garbage mushy team building crap that everyone on this ship is super addicted to."

"Well I suppose that's a reasonable thing to be working through," Tali admitted. "I mean, you're no longer on the run from the law here. So, you're starting to get more comfortable with how much safer things are."

Jack just chortled.

"Please, this isn't safe, this is hardly safe," she argued.

"Relatively safer I mean," Tali corrected. "You're not dealing with selfish criminals out for themselves anymore."

"Fine, it's not like prison or being in a gang," Jack admitted, sounding agitated. "But that's probably my point. I'm not used to this, I've never been used to it, but part of me wants to be and it's messing me up."

Jack always sounded pissed or annoyed about something, but this was clearly different. Usually, her problems related to people getting on her nerves. This sounded like something, something Tali knew she was not qualified to deal with at all. Even if she wasn't having nightmare visions telling her horrible things.

"It's just, I've never felt safe, I guess," Jack explained further. "I've never felt open. I lived my life keeping on the move, making sure I was never in one place. Always hopping from station to planet, job to job, on whatever shuttle I could either stow on or hijack. And now... maybe... maybe just I've been here so long, with the same people, with more of a regular routine... fuck, it just feels so weird to me."

"In your line of work I guess it would," Tali agreed. "But, what does that have to do with me?"

"Because you got your shit together," Jack informed her bluntly. "You've been through this weird emotional attachment longing shit and it got you somewhere. You got to bed the ship's Captain. That's gotta be like a big time goal for you quarians, right?"

Tali had no idea how to respond to that. Mainly because the first part of that whole statement was currently the least true. She had none of her shit together, at all. She feared it was all going to explode any second in fact.

"I'm not the best person to talk about handling emotional issues in a healthy way," Tali tried to inform her, somewhat hoping Jack would give up and go away. "Kelly is the psychologist, she'd be able to talk this out with you better."

"I don't need a shrink, I'm not crazy," Jack stated firmly. "Well, not in the regular way anyhow. My point is, compared to everyone else, you're great at this whole emotions thing. Probably because you have to be extra expressive with that mask on all the time. My only other choices for this kind of talk are Kasumi, who can't help but make wiseass comments and gossip, Samara, who half the time has to mention she'd probably kill me if she wasn't under oath, and Miranda. So, yeah, fuck that shit and fuck her, that's one thing I know we both agree on."

"No argument there," Tali grumbled in agreement.

"Point is you're trustworthy and you're a fellow female and you're in a relationship so you know your shit about all this," Jack elaborated quickly. "So, I just need to know how to deal with these... things I'm feeling."

Tali would have answered instantly, if not the fact she and Jack were no longer alone. Tali could just barely see a shape behind Jack and when she looked she had to hide her horror. It was one of the strange disfigured creatures from the vision she had the other night. It was glaring at her now, stepping out from behind Jack, appendages writing, a filthy mandile jaw opening and shutting with jutted pointed teeth.

 **This one's feeling is of a creature lost, confused and dysfunctional. Her rage is all encompassing, both within and without. She is not long for this world. She will break. You know this. End her suffering now.**

Ignore it, Tali, she thought, thinking it would go away if she just didn't respond. Even as it slithered over to sit beside Jack, just off to the right. The Ex-Con, of course, didn't see it, couldn't see it. Tali did her best to keep the conversation going, she couldn't draw suspicion to herself.

"I think it would be easier to go through all this if you told me what these feelings are," Tali explained. "And who they're toward."

"I'm not comfortable with that," Jack explained. "Not that I think you'll tell, I'm just not into revealing names right now. It's complicated, mainly because I don't know what I feel. Only that it isn't right, at least not for me."

 **She spurns her own happiness. Her own chance at true bliss. She is weakened by joy. Death would cleanse her.**

The creature was moving its head and appendages around Jack, grasping at her. Still, Jack did not react. Not even a little bit. She carried on as normal.

"Whatever you're feeling can't be so bad," Tali tried to tell her. "I mean, you don't sound like you want to get rid of it."

"It's not a question of it being bad or good, Tali," the tattooed woman corrected her. "It's... well the thing is I've been down this road before and I got hurt. And... and this isn't a question of me NOT getting hurt again, I know if I go further with this I will get hurt. And it won't be anyone's fault but my own this time because it is inevitable."

 **All life is hurt. She knows this. She has always known this. You know it too. But there is no pain in the grave.**

Block it out, Tali struggled within her own head. Block it out, do not even look at it. Ignore how it keeps trying to slither its tendrils around, how it wraps around Jack's head and all the human woman does is keep going on about whatever it is she's trying to relay. Tali felt the horrible urge to reach out and stop this thing from trying to entrap her shipmate, but she knew it wasn't there. It could not be real! Nothing that horrible could be real. So why was it here taunting her?

"We can't close ourselves off to good feelings because of pain," Tali tried to state.

 **Why are you lying to her?**

"If I hadn't been honest with Shepard, I never would've known where it could go," she continued, trying to shut the creature out. "Not knowing hurts more than anything. If I were you, I'd try to work through these feelings, find out if they're genuine-"

 **The only genuine feeling is that of suffering. Of hunger. Of fear. It is better to let go. End this charade. End them.**

"Just find out if they're real, Jack," Tali insisted, louder, trying to blot out the monster's words. "Find out if they're real and just go with it. You're a risk taker, you don't let pain get to you right? Well, just go for it then. Be yourself! You're a person who headbutts robots at full biotic speed! Remember?"

Jack now looked concerned more than anything, mainly because, as Tali herself had noticed, she was now getting louder, more aggressive and was currently standing.

"Uh, Tali, is something wrong?" Jack asked. "Did I touch another nerve?"

 **Kill them, Tali. Kill them all. Let them know true peace. Everlasting. Final. Become one with us at last.**

Creature moved to wrap its tentacle around Jack and start strangling. Tali couldn't stop what she did next. She leapt over the table and tried to tackle the monster. To wrench Jack free of whatever this thing was and leave her ship, her home, her family alone! She brought the monster to the ground and began beating it into the bulkhead beneath, pounding her fists into its disgusting decayed face.

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up to see Jack looking over her. More concern on her face than she had ever had before. Tali looked back to the floor and saw nothing and her own hands felt sore and numb from pounding on the metal beneath their feet.

"Tali, what the hell is-"

Tali bolted from the ground and rushed to the elevator, wrenching herself away from Jack. She rushed inside before the human could catch her and slammed on the button. She needed to get back to engineering, she needed to get to her comfort zone. She needed work. Yes, work would keep these things at bay. Work would help steady her. She could make it through this. She could fight this.

Then the doors opened and another of the monsters attacked her, pinning her against the back wall of the shaft.

 **You cannot fight us. We have already won. Our revenge is complete. The usurpers are dead! Your people could be like us. They could sing victory for eternity. You could be the first.**

It spoke in her mind like a thousand screeching sickly birds at once. Tali struggled from its grasp, trying to pull herself out.

"I'm not like you!" She shouted in defiance. "My people will never be like you! You're abominations! Monsters! What you've done is worse than anything the Forerunners did to you!"

 **Poor miserable child of entrapped flesh. You have such little true understanding of what we've done. The beauty we created. We shall show it to you! Impart the history long forgotten. The glory stolen from us and what shall be ours again.**

The monster grabbed Tali's head and in one horrible second she screamed a shriek so loud it felt as if it would shatter her own visor. Images flooded into her head, horrible, terrifying images. Wars, death, pain, revenge, hunger, suffering, a whole cavalcade of horrors. The monster had not been bluffing, it shared everything. It was all true, all of it. What they had done, what they now planned to do. It hurt too much to bare.

The monster released its grip and Tali dropped to the floor.

 **Struggle if you wish. We are inevitable. Your friends, your family, you will all be with us soon.**

The creatures vanished as a light shined down on her. She half worried it was THE light. Instead, it was just a flashlight from Dr. Chakwas. She did not look happy at all and she was surrounded by other people.

"Med Bay, now!" She ordered.

Tali blacked out after that.

* * *

Tali woke up in the med bay, in a rather familiar situation in fact. She was still in her suit, but this time she was strapped down by her legs and arms. She pulled at them, annoyed, also frightened. Eventually, Chakwas came into view.

"Tali, please," she pleaded. "Do not hurt yourself."

The quarian finally got a better view of everything, seeing most of the crew in the room with Chakwas, watching over her. All of them were concerned, she didn't exactly blame them for that. She still didn't like being strapped down.

"What is going on?" She asked, no, more like demanded. "Why am I restrained? Unlock this."

"I don't think that would be wise, Tali," Chakwas warned. "You're... you're not well."

Tali wanted to lie, say she was fine. She knew they wouldn't believe her. Besides, she now knew what was wrong with her.

"Listen, you need to understand, I learned something," she tried to explain.

"We imagine you have," Chakwas admitted. "Tali, have you been... seeing things?"

Tali was silent for a moment. She reasoned there was still no sense in lying.

"I have been seeing something, that's what I'm trying-"

"Tali, please," Chakwas told her. "Right now you need to listen to us."

Mordin approached next, holding up a datapad.

"Performed deep neural scan. Several other tests," he began gravely. "Discovered increased brainwave activity. Subtle. Below baseline of less invasive procedures. Different wavelength. Feeding into neurological centers resposible for the subconcious mind."

"Just get to the point," Tali requested, already guessing at the obvious. "Something is making me see all these things."

"Yes," Chakwas confirmed. "More specifically, it seems to be feeding off the lingering psychokinetic markers left by the Flood Spores that tried to infect you. Activating the parts of your synapses that create dreams and drawing on your underlying subconcious mind for further power. We didn't see it at first because we weren't looking for any of that while we were checking on you. None of those thing have anything to do with blacking out or memory loss. In short, you've been dreaming while you're awake."

"Yes, I've guessed as much at this point," Tali assured. "Somehow, whatever is happening to me is connected to my experience with the Flood. It is using that to force memories into my mind, feed on my fear, connect me to something else."

"Tali, please start making sense," Kasumi requested. "You're scaring us."

"You should be scared," Tali informed her sternly. "This thing looked into me, saw what was in my head and started using that against me. I can see that now. It's in there and trying to drive me crazy, just like in the swamp."

"The spores aren't active again, Tali," Chakwas assured. "They're gone, dead, we got them all before they could do any real damage. We double checked just now. This isn't the Flood."

"It is, but it isn't," Tali corrected her. "This isn't happening because of the spores, not exactly. It's because of the relic."

The whole room looked confused.

"The Forerunner relic is making you see visions?" Chakwas asked, confused.

"No, let me explain," Tali tried to clarify frantically. "It's like with Shepard and the Prothean Beacons. The relics contain knowledge as well as power. When I went to grab it, the power surge that was unleashed must've... I don't know, supercharged the mental warning system in my head. Connected me to... to something. And just before I blacked out again, it revealed to me why."

"Why what?" Kasumi asked. "You're not making sense, Tali."

"Why this is happening to me," Tali shouted aloud. "Why getting zapped by the relic gave me visions and put voices in my head. It filled me with a bunch of memories stored inside it, transfered it to my mind. Something picked up on all that and now it's trying to drive me crazy! But it made a mistake, it told me everything just now! Everything we need to know about the relics!"

"What about the Relics?" Miranda asked.

"They're not Forerunner," Tali snarled at her. "The _Dauntless_ was just carrying the thing, but it is not from their culture. It's an artifact from another civilization, the one before them, the Precursors. The relic belonged to them. They made it!"

The room looked at her in disbelief and confusion. Even Shepard, who looked as distraught and frightened as anyone. But she had to go one, they needed to know.

"Listen, the Precursors were real," she continued, speaking in a pitched frenzy. "They ruled the Galaxy before the Forerunners. They could create things, life, all at a whim. But the Forerunners turned on them. They... they tried to survive, tried to find a way to come back after the war. Something went wrong, they were changed, altered, became consumed by hatred. They didn't even try fighting it, they let it change them and loosed their new forms on the Forerunners!"

"Wait," Garrus interrupted, a look of worry still on his face. "Are you saying... the Precursors... created the Flood?"

"No, they are the Flood!" Tali insisted, pulling at her restraints. "I know it sounds fantastic, but I swear, it all became so clear. I told you, the relic's power surge somehow fed this knowledge into my head, that's why I kept seeing things and blacking out, it has to be. I couldn't process it all. But then, whatever is... whatever is connected to me sorted it for me. Made it clearer!"

"Tali, for all we know, whatever you thought you saw was a delusion," Miranda tried to argue. "Now, we've already concluded that the relic might have had something to do with triggering this... psychosis. But I would not be so quick to conclude a bunch of a strange daymares would be feeding you information on some long lost civilization."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Lawson?" Tali snarled. "You'd like me to just be crazy, wouldn't you?"

"No one is calling you crazy, Tali," Chakwas assured. "But our scans only detect increased neurological activity. We're not picking up seperate brainwaves or anything. You're not connected to another mind, nothing is speaking to you. It's probably just your subconcious, drawing from your memory of what happened in the swamp."

"Then explain why it keeps talking to me! Comparing me to them!" Tali demanded. "I didn't make this up! I was shown it!"

"Possibility your mind trying to rationalize trauma," Mordin explained asutely. "Precursor's theorized plight similar to quarians. Mind may have created worst case scenario. What you fear quarians will do. Unlikely to be eons old memory. Scientifically improbable."

"It's not improbable!" Tali shrieked at him. "It is happening! Right now! To me!"

Chakwas pulled up chart for her to see on her datapad. On it was various bits of information, detailing brainwaves and scans. Tali didn't understand until Chakwas explained.

"All these scans say is that you have an increase of subconcious mental activity," she stated. "Triggering mental hallucinations and bizarre waking dreams. This compounded with your lack of sleep is making you see images that aren't there. While it is possible this was triggered somehow by the relic, there is also the possibility this is a latent byproduct from the spores affecting your mind. A symptom of the scars they left when we removed them. We still don't know what the total extent of your mental trauma from the experience was. You were almost infected by a malicious parasite with some kind of hive mind."

"Exactly and I think that hive mind or some kind of remnant of it is speaking to me!" Tali insisted. "I didn't even learn about the Precursors before I talked to Taq about them. How could my mind just make this story up on its own? How is this any different from the Beacon on Eden Prime?"

"Because as far as we know the relic we found is a some kind of power source," Miranda interjected. "It is not an information repository. We have people analyzing it and they have come across no evidence it contains any such historical information."

"No one asked for your stupid opinion, Miranda!" Tali screeched. "I'm not insane! I'm not making this up! It's real! It happened! It is happening! Stop trying to turn people against me!"

"You're doing a fine enough job of doing that by yourself," Miranda claimed disdainfully.

Tali struggled against her restraints, knowing it was useless. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to punch out every perfect tooth in that stupid human's face.

"Bitch! You've always been a bitch! You've always hated me!" Tali shrieked. "Why don't you just shut up already and jump out the airlock! No one would miss you! No one would even fucking care!"

Miranda was unmoved, but Shepard pulled her aside. He motioned to the door and Miranda left without even looking back. Tali glared at her the whole way. Shepard took over, and Tali's features softened.

"Shepard, you believe me, right?" She asked pleadingly. "I'm not crazy, you've been through this. You know what this is like. These visions... they're not just dreams. They're something else."

"Tali, I want to believe you, I really do," Shepard tried to calmly explain. "But you're scaring me right now and-"

"I already told you! You should be scared!" Tali yelled frantically. "Don't you know what this means?"

"Tali, please," Kasumi said, a begging looking in her eyes. "We just want to help you."

"If you want to help, then we need to find this voice," Tali imposed sternly. "We need to find it and kill it and shut it up. It's out there somewhere and it is going to come after us. We need to stop it or we're all doomed."

"Do you even know where this voice is?" Shepard asked.

Tali couldn't answer that right away, her mind fraught with worry. Then she hit upon an idea.

"Wait, the relic," she reasoned. "The relic is the answer! If I just had it, with the right analyzation software and materials and everything I could find where it is transmitting and-"

"Tali, no," Shepard stated, steadfast and firm. "If that thing did do something to you, I am not about to expose you to it even more. We need to figure out a way to stop these visions before you lose your mind-"

"I am not losing my mind!" Tali screamed. "This is the only way! The only way to stop it! I'm prepared to risk it!"

"I'm not," Shepard informed her. "You need medicine, something to supress these visions, put the sub back in subconcious."

"Sleep could assist," Mordin suggested.

Tali shook her head violently, that was the last thing she wanted.

"No, no, when I'm asleep it's even worse," she tried to explain, scared beyond all belief. "It claws in and it stays there. It's like hell, you can't put me to sleep! It will kill me!"

"We won't let that happen," Chakwas insisted. "Whatever this is happening to you, Tali, we can beat it, but you have to trust us."

"You don't even trust me!" Tali growled. "Why else would I be restrained like this?"

She looked to Shepard again, her tone and eyes pleading for his ear.

"Please, Wade," she begged. "I am telling the truth. It's out there and it will kill us. It will kill me. You have to let me fix this. I'm the only one that can fix this. We have to kill it before it does the same to us. It's the only way."

Shepard looked at her, crestfallen and lost. He bowed his head and sighed mournfully.

"I need to figure out what's best for everyone right now, Tali," he tried to explain. "That includes you. I'm not going to risk you damaging yourself more by getting close to that relic again. I'll have Taq look at it more, but you're staying away from it."

The words hit hard, Tali felt utterly defeated. Even the man she loved wasn't listening. No one was listening. They didn't trust her, not anymore. Pulling back onto her restraints, Tali placed her head back and accepted there was nothing she could do. Not right now anyway.

She heard words of encouragement, people saying she could beat this, that they were all there for her, but none of them registered. She just watched them all leave, Shepard especially. How could he not trust her? Why didn't he believe her? Why were all so adamant that this was fantasy? Perhaps they just couldn't understand. But she had hoped Shepard of all people would.

Through the glass of the med bay she saw him, looking saddened, heartbroken, barely able to even look back at her. She felt sick, like she had pushed him away. He thought she was insane. And in the next instant she saw the reason why. Miranda approached, offering a hand on his shoulder. Rage boiled in Tali's mind. She looked back and forth to see Chakwas and Mordin busy with other things involving her care. But she wasn't completely helpless, she still had her suit and she could use that. She whispered a voice command.

"Visor, activate laser mic attachment," she requested.

The visor activated the laser mic function and she closed in on Shepard and Miranda. Before long, her head set was picking up their conversation.

"I know you're worried about her and I know why," Miranda stated. "But she is not herself. And we don't know if she'll ever get better."

"Don't say that," Shepard ordered angrily.

"I'm just preparing you, the damage could be irrepreable," Miranda clarified. "Who knows what those spores did or whatever activated it now, weeks after they were destroyed. It could be the relic, it could be she hasn't been sleeping, we just don't know."

"I'm not giving up on her," Shepard insisted. "She's a member of this crew, she's important to all of us."

"You need to look at this without emotion," Miranda informed him. "She's dangerous, to herself and the crew. We need to think about what she can do. I suggest we move her to a more secure observation room."

"A cell?" Shepard responded in shock, sounding disgusted at the very notion.

"And that we move the relic," Miranda added, not even slowing down. "Place it somewhere secure. Taq can do these tests, maybe she finds nothing and that proves to Tali that she's hallucinating. Then she can get real help."

Shepard looked thoughtful, Tali couldn't believe it. He was actually considering it, she could just tell.

"She's not our enemy, Miranda," Shepard stated. "We can't treat her like a prisoner."

"She is lashing out at anyone who even says something counter to what she thinks this dream is telling her," Miranda sternly reminded him. "We don't know what lengths she'll go to in order to get what she wants. And if she starts fiddling around with that relic, who knows what kind of damage it can do. We still don't know what it actually does yet, save for powering killer robots. The more secure it and she is, the better."

Shepard just sighed. Tali shook her head, recognizing the body language. No, she thought, he couldn't.

"It has to be somewhere comfortable," he ordered. "It is not going to be a cell."

"Of course," Miranda assured. "I can make the arrangements."

Tali turned off the mic, she couldn't hear anymore. The bitch, she had turned him against her. She knew this wold happen. She knew it all along. She was using this to destroy her! Destroy everything! She needed to stop her, needed to stop this. But all she could do right now was lay restrained against this slab.

Worse yet, the visions hadn't stopped. As Chakwas approached again, the Precursor creature appeared again behind her. Almost as if to taunt her.

 **They cannot understand. They will not understand. Your mind will soon be ours. And with it, everything you love will die. We will let you watch as the world crumbles around you and you become our vanguard. You will be grateful for this, in time.**

Tali steeled her gaze as Chakwas prepared a injection device for her shoulder port.

"This is sterile," she assured. "It will put you to sleep for a while. Just a short while, so we can get some more readings."

"Don't, please," Tali requested weakly. "It will come again."

"We're going to beat it, Tali," Chakwas assured her. "I promise you. Everything will be okay."

The precursor appeared over her shoulder.

 **Delusions of one who does not know what we have shown you. Your mind is ours now. Embrace the song of the tomb, Tali'Zorah. The grave welcomes you, our instrument.**

Tali couldn't even scream, Chakwas' injection was already taking effect.

* * *

Tali felt cold. She couldn't see anything around here. Just black. Darkness. Was she in her new cell Lawson had set up? Or was this a different prison? One of her mind. Had the other voice taken over? Were the precursors now in charge? She didn't know. How could she? Nothing made sense anymore. She was so sure of things only a few hours ago, now it was darkness, confusion.

All she knew for certain was that there was an other. That this thing was a Precursor. Maybe it was an AI that held its memories. Maybe it was Precursor trasmitting horrors into her head. More likely it was some kind of Flood creature, the same one that her brain off before. It was out there in the void, trying to make her do its bidding. Trying to make it kill her friends, betray her ship. It had already isolated her from them, turned them against her.

Shepard thought she was insane. Miranda was taking advantage of it. Kasumi, Garrus, everyone, they had no idea what was coming. It was after them, after all of them. She had to save them, she was the only one who knew the true nature of the threat. She had to do something, she had to get out of here and save them. By any means necessary. They needed her, Shepard needed her. How could she convince them of the danger? That she was right?

As she contemplated this in the dark, a small speck of light sudden poked out of the black. She couldn't help but look to it. At first in fear, but then in hope. Maybe something was breaking throuhgn the dark, trying to get to her. The hole of light became wider and wider and before long a hand reached out from the other side. Tali was cautious at first, but what other choice did she have? Wallow here in self-pity or do something about the situation. Tali had never been much for wallowing. She grabbed the hand and it pulled her through the hole.

She felt herself being nestled next and instead of cold she felt warmth. With it came safety, happy memories, some semblance of hope returning to her mind. Someone was cradling her. When she looked up, she was shocked to see who it was. Another quarian, but this was a face she had not seen in a long time. Ever since she passed so many years ago.

"Mom?"

Tali's voice was practically cracking as she looked up into her mother's visor. It carried the same pattern as her own hood, but a lighter shade of violent colored it. Her envirosuit was as elegantly designed as ever, just as it was so long ago. Tali at times barely remembered her mom on her best days, The images of her were so long past, so distant. She had trouble recalling her as much as she wanted, her mind always fixated on her father, on pleasing Rael'Zorah.

"My dear sweet child," her mother crooned. "I knew you would not forget me."

Tali placed her head in her mother's bosom.

"I'm so scared mom, something horrible is happening to me," she said, starting to cry. "Something is in my head, it wants to hurt Shepard, my friends. It's turning them against me. They all think I'm crazy, but I'm the only one who can save them from this thing. The only one that can destroy it."

"Oh Tali, always placing so many burdens on your shoulders," her mom said sadly. "I blame myself, I left you too early. I should've been there for you. A mother has to be there for her daughter. To guide her, to lead her."

"I don't blame you, Mom, it wasn't your fault you got sick," Tali sniffed.

She hugged her mom close, letting the return embrace envelop her.

"I... I missed you so much, Mom," she cried. "I... I tried to make dad proud but-"

"Sssh, sssh, your father was proud, Tali," her mother insisted. "He still is. He is with me now and we are with you. We can help you."

Those were just the words she needed to hear. A spark of hope now burst forth from within her, bringing to mind the thing that always helped ease her mind. She knew the problem, she wasn't alone, she could fix his.

"Yes, yes I need help," Tali pleaded, clutching at her mother. "Please, I need to know what to do. I need to stop this, before people get hurt."

"You already know what you must do, my daughter," her mother reminded her. "You must find the relic, it will lead you to the monster. Once it is slain, you'll end both your torment and that of millions."

"But how?" Tali asked. "I'm trapped, they won't listen to me."

"Then you must act on your own, as many quarians before you have," her mother informed her. "They will understand. Most of them anyway."

Tali looked at her confused.

"What do you mean most?"

"The human female," her mother sneered. "The perfect one. She cannot be trusted. She is still Cerberus. She poisons Shepard's mind. You saw it yourself. You must expose her, before she ruins all chance of hope for your salvation."

Tali was aghast.

"She... she's still Cerberus? But I thought-"

"She lied, she has always lied," Tali's mother claimed. "She hides behind her perfect smile and body, seduces your beloved Commander away from you. She intends to do far worse. Getting you out of the way is only step one. Besides, the information you need for your task is likely with her."

Tali thought about it, and slowly it made more sense. Yes, yes Miranda had to still be working with Cerberus. It was all a front, a ploy, a trick. She was trying to bring Shepard back to the Illusive Man's side. She would turn against them all. She wanted to keep him for herself.

"You're right, she has to be stopped," Tali reasoned stoically. "She's Cerberus, she hates the quarians. She'd see us all killed."

"There is no telling what lengths she'll go to in order to accomplish that," her mother warned. "She might even use Legion's vulnerable state to turn him against you too. And you'll need Legion."

"Yes, they're our only hope at ever creating peace between our people," Tali reasoned.

"True, but you may need Legion much sooner than that," her mother claimed. "First though, before you can do any of this. You must escape your confinement."

"But how?" Tali asked again. "How do I-"

"You are quarian and you are my daughter, Tali," her mother assured her. "They think you are weak, easily held down. Like so many others before them, they underestimate you. Prove them wrong, Tali. Prove them all wrong. Show them what you're made of and lead them to the true enemy... and their salvation."

"I will, mother, I promise," Tali swore, looking up at her mom's inviting eyes.

"I love you so much, my child," her mother said sweetly as she caressed her head. "You were always destined for greatness. Today, you will prove that. Do not fear the dark, Tali. I shall be with you. Every step of the way."

There was a flash of light that blinded Tali momentarily, she briefly feared it... but then embraced it and its warmth.

* * *

Faint music awoke Tali. As the darkness of her vision faded she found herself in a cell. Well not exactly a cell, it was furnished with a cot, a place to sit, a table with some datapads which probably had books downloaded into them for her to read. It was a cell though, one in the former brig of the _Ascendant Justice_. They must've moved her while she was asleep. Miranda had gotten what she wanted.

"Laugh it up now, bitch," Tali said to herself silently. "It won't last."

A Marine posted on watch noticed her stir and looked to her.

"Um, hello ma'am," he spoke to her sheepishly. "I'm... I'm sorry if this is a bit discomforting. We... Doctor Chakwas suggested moving you here-"

"I know who sent me here," Tali said rather plainly. "I don't need explanations."

"Would... would you like to see Professor Solus or Doctor-"

"No," Tali said flatly. "I don't want to see anyone. I just want some water or something."

"I can go get some for you," he assured her.

Tali motioned her head off to the side and the Marine walked off. That would keep him distracted long enough. And the music would hide any sounds she made. She could tell who the artist was, Iron Maiden, an old Earth band. She recalled this song, it was one of the many Joker liked playing now and then. This one was called "Dream of Mirrors."

 _ **Think I've heard your Voice before, think I've said these Words before**_

 _ **Something makes me Feel I just might Lose my Mind**_

 _ **Am I still inside my Dream? Is this a New Reality?**_

 _ **Something makes me Feel that I have Lost my Mind**_

Maybe she was losing her mind, but she'd get it back and kill the thing inside. She wouldn't let it win. She looked at her cell, following the creases in the paneling. She knew what to look for and how to use it. Eventually she spotted it, a panel on the wall. She moved over to tap it. As she suspected, hollow on the otherside. This led to a power coupling shaft, she had studied the _Ascendant Justice's_ schematics long enough to remember that they passed by the brig. Hard to squeeze through for most people, but not her.

She looked for her tools, but found none. Of course, Miranda probably had them removed. Clever bitch, but she hadn't won yet. There was one thing she likely didn't consider. It was worth trying.

"DOT, are you still in my suit?" She asked whispering.

"Yes, Tali," the AI replied. "As per your own protocol, I concealed myself from detection from all scans."

A security precaution she created, in case she had been captured with DOT still in her suit. She designed it to activate during a blackout or signs of severe distress. She never thought she'd be using it to escape a cell her friends had put her in.

"Can you reactivate my omni-tool?" She asked the AI. "They've probably disabled it."

"Your omni-tool hardlock was instituted by Doctor Chakwas on direct orders from Executive Officer Lawson," DOT reported. "I do not believe it is standard protocol to-"

"Override protocol and failsafes," Tali ordered. "Remove hardlock."

"Acknowledged, Tali," DOT answered. "You have full control over omni-tool functions."

Tali didn't activate it yet, her guard was returning with her water. He placed it in a small shaft to the side of the cell door. Once activated, it opened up a compartment on her side of the cell, delivering her bottle of water to her.

"I had to get it filtered," he explained. "Health issue as I understand."

"I'm aware," Tali told him. "Can you leave now?"

"I'm ordered to stay here unless otherwise notified," he informed her.

Typical, but it didn't bother Tali, she had another way to get rid of him that wouldn't involve sending him off for snacks. She went over to the table and grabbed one of the datapads, putting him at ease. She was just going to read, as far as he was concerned. When she took the water, he turned around. His back turned, Tali activated her omni-tool, stealth mode. She pretended to be reading something while her back was turned, instead she was activating her hacking suite.

She connected herself to the security system and activated a fire alarm in a maintenance hub not to far away from their current location. She then waited for the results. The Marine soon picked up an alert on his omni-tool. He looked to Tali briefly, but then started to move off.

"Please remain calm, ma'am," he said. "There might be a problem. Need to check, I'll be right back."

"Take your time," Tali told him.

All the while the song continued.

 _ **I get up Put on the Light, Dreading the oncoming Night,**_

 _ **Scared to fall Asleep and Dream the Dream again.**_

 _ **Nothing that I Contemplate, Nothing that I can Compare,**_

 _ **To letting Loose the Demons Deep Inside my Head**_

If this went right, that would never happen to her. Once the Marine left the brig, Tali sneering behind his back. She only had a few minutes. She fixed her cot to look like she was in it, but taking a nap. It wouldn't work for long, pillows under bed sheets were hardly convincing, but it would work long enough.

 _ **Dread to think what might be Stirring, that my Dream is Reoccurring.**_

 _ **Got to keep away from Drifting, Saving me from Myself.**_

She rushed to the panel again and activated her omni-tool's engineering functions. She cut through the panel very carefully, so as not to make it look too out of place once she put it back. The music in the background hurried her pace, cutting through the sheath of metal, hoping the rock music would blot out any stray sounds from her work.

 _ **I only Dream in Black and White, I only Dream cause I'm Alive**_

 _ **I only Dream in Black and White, to Save me from Myself**_

A comforting thought, as long as she dreamed, even if it was a nightmare, she was alive. Alive meant she was still herself and she could win. As the chorus continued to play, she cut the final bit she needed. She pried the panel away, careful to make as little noise as possible. With the panel now off, she found herself looking down into a dark power line shaft, a pulsating cable running through it. A tight fit, but it was her only choice.

Tali shoved herself into the tight space, closing the panel tight behind her as she forced herself inside. The last bit of the song she could hear was the singer saying "The Dream is True, The Dream is True." No, she thought, not a dream, a nightmare, one that only she saw. One that she needed to stop. She could not fail, she would not fail. They all thought she was crazy, but she knew, she was only sane person left. The only hope they all had. They'd see it, they'd understand. When this was done, they'd all understand.

She crawled into the dark, her mission clear. Find the voice, kill it, silence it. End it before it ended them.

* * *

AN: Yes another horror based chapter, but this time more overt. Will Tali succeed in her mission or will she lose her mind to the Precursors? Are the two outcomes all that different? We'll find out. That's right, cliffhanger! Gotta come back to see how this all turns out! See ya then! Until then, do check out the profile page as we have more Hellfox audio links for you to listen to as well as a link to a short but insightful little behind the scenes notes piece. Enjoy!


	15. The Call of the Grave

Chapter 14: The Call of the Grave

 _The Scariest Monsters are the Ones that Lurk Inside Our Souls_

 _-Edgar Allan Poe_

Darkness surrounded her in this pit, but the bowels of the _Ascendant Justice_ were the only place she could truly hide. There were only a few scant Huragoks, Engineers, residing here and she could easily avoid them. The creatures only cared about maintaining the ship, paying her little attention even if they did see her. This suited Tali just fine, they were not her target and she could not waste time with them. Every second she was down here was another second that risked her absence being discovered. The guard would not be fooled by the old pillow trick forever. Once they found out she was free, this would get a whole lot harder. She needed to act fast. It was the only way to save everyone.

It was a strange paradox though, the darkness served her purposes, she needed it, but it was also her enemy. For in every dank corner, every blackened causeway, there was the voice. Its voice. The creature calling to her. Every now and then she heard it screech at her mind. Telling her to accept the blackness around her, the embrace the shadow, to fall into death. It was not a plead, it was not a request, it was a demand. One that became more pounding within her mind every second.

 **Escape is impossible. The grave takes all. Accept it now and the pain will end. This existence is fleeting. Flawed. It would be so easy to surrender.**

"Quarians don't do easy," Tali spat back.

 **Then your descent into the tomb will not be quiet. Your screams shall deafen you.**

Out of the corner of her eyes she always thought she saw the shadows creeping closer. Trying to encroach on her, but she pushed it out of her mind best she could. She would not let them stop her. She was close to her goal, her first objective. She just needed round the next corner and... yes, there it was! A network portal, a connection to Fleetcom, the equivalent of an extranet for all the ships flying in their flotilla. That included the _Normandy_. She'd need that to get what she wanted.

She activated her omni-tool, connecting it to Fleetcom covertly. The channel was still tuned to BBR, specifically to see if they had noticed Tali was gone. So far, still music, no news breaks, no announcements. She was still safe. With that squared away for now, she took DOT off standby.

"DOT, I need you to search for whatever communiques about the relic that had been transmitted in the past two hours," she ordered it. "And pull up all my notes concerning the Slipspace Drive project. I'm going to need them."

"Of course, Tali," DOT replied. "Tasks are now running."

Tali waited for a bit, letting DOT do her work. She took in the music playing from her omni-tool. Apparently BBR was working through the Iron Maiden discography, because they were still on. She could tell just by the music, the almost chanting guitar sound confirmed it. The haunting refrain, filling the maintenance corridors with its sound, it calmed her senses while at same time heightening them.

 _ **I am a man who walks alone,**_

 _ **And when I'm walking a dark road,**_

 _ **At night or strolling through the park**_

 _ **When the light begins to fade**_

 _ **I sometimes feel a little strange,**_

 _ **A little anxious, when its dark.**_

Tali looked around, almost instinctively. Trying to scan the shadows, to peer through the dark. She could feel something out there, watching her. Maybe just another Engineer passing by, maybe. It didn't feel like one though. It felt more malevolent, angry.

 _ **Fear of the Dark, Fear of the Dark**_

 _ **I have a constant fear that something's always there.**_

 _ **Fear of the Dark, Fear of the Dark**_

 _ **I have a phobia that someone's always there.**_

Tali looked right into the shadow as the music kicked in suddenly. An image appeared, an outline in the shadowy mists. Something tall, taller than a huragok. Something she remembered from before. It scratched and clawed from the shadow, gasping and wheezing in pain and rage.

She looked away, trying to let the music drown out the sounds. In due time it did, but her mind kept scraping at her senses. Telling her danger was near. Telling something was close. Something horrible. But she knew it could not be real. The monster was not here, it was out there. It was just trying to stop her, distract her, break her so she couldn't complete her mission. She gripped the wall, trying to steady her breathing.

 _ **Have you run your fingers down the wall**_

 _ **And have you felt your neck skin crawl**_

 _ **When you're searching for the light?**_

Tali could feel the skin on her back crawl, bristle in fear and confusion. She knew this wasn't real. None of what she saw in the shadows was real. This was the voice, the monster, she told herself. She kept telling herself that as she felt hot slime dripping around her. The stench of death permeating her olfactory filters. None of that was real.

 _ **Sometimes when you're scared to take a look**_

 _ **At the corner of the room**_

 _ **You've sensed that something's watching you.**_

Even though her waking mind told her not to. Her instinct said she needed to prepare, she needed to strike. She activated the omni-tool's omni-blade, popping it out. She was scared to look, because either reveal would not be helpful. Fear of was or wasn't there, what tricks her addled mind was playing or if her senses could be trusted. In the end, she turned, pointing he blade forward.

But she saw nothing.

 _ **Fear of the Dark, Fear of the Dark**_

 _ **I have a constant fear that something's always there!**_

 _ **Fear of the Dark, Fear of the Dark**_

 _ **I have a phobia that someone's always there!**_

"Tali?"

DOT's voice brought her out of her trance. She turned back to the omni-tool again, to what she knew was real.

"You got everything?" Tali asked.

"As much as possible," DOT explained. "Your notes were easy to recover. However, there is little information concerning the relic at this time."

Tali moved about to look down another section of the corridor as DOT explained, her mind still racing with fear from her imagined encounter. She just couldn't shake it.

"Security precautions have been put in place," DOT explained. "The system did not respond to requests for the data. It seems much of the current information is either under review or still above your classification access."

"That's impossible, I had full access be-" She stopped herself suddenly and grimaced at the thought.

Miranda, of course. She revoked her clearance to the files. The bitch, she should've realized. Lawson was too clever to not realize the risk. How foolish it was to think she would be so stupid. No, no, she would not risk Tali trying to hack in somehow, to get the intel she needed. She shouldn't have blurted out her plan to everyone, she should've realized that Miranda had her hooks in all of them. How the monster had convinced them that the quarian was crazy now and couldn't be trusted.

"Could you get anything?" Tali asked.

A running series of footsteps distracted her for a moment. She pointed her omni-blade towards the noise, shaking as she did.

"I was able to discern that the relic has been moved to a secure location and that studies are underway concerning possible functions of the device," DOT explained. "Research is primarily centered around possible information transfer or potential mental degradation due amplified energy exposure."

They were trying to at least test her theory, she presumed Shepard had convinced them of the viability. Or at least someone had. Perhaps she wasn't entirely alone, that someone in her crew believed her. At least in so far it was the relic that was at fault for all this. Not that it mattered, they'd try to stop her anyway, she knew that.

"Where could I find the information I need?" Tali asked.

"All security concerns have been directed towards Executive Officer Miranda Lawson," DOT replied. "Her personal computer would be the most likely data storage system. Details about the relic's current location, as well as any research updates would likely be funneled to her system for peer review. As for the main body of research, more than likely with the chief research officer on hand."

"Taq," Tali said succinctly.

"That is highly probable," DOT agreed.

Tali stepped back, hearing sounds coming from the darkness around her, but she did her best to shut them out. To let the music drown them. She needed to keep her head focused, her mind clear.

 _ **Watching horror films the night before**_

 _ **Debating witches and folklores**_

 _ **The unknown troubles on your mind**_

There was a sudden growling snarl from a shadowy corner. Tali backed away from it, her omni-tool focused on the spot.

 _ **Maybe your mind is playing tricks**_

 _ **You sense, and suddenly eyes afix**_

 _ **On dancing shadows from behind**_

Tali turned and watched something wafting through the dark, moving oddly and misshapen. Something reached out from the abyss, trying to bring itself closer and pull her in. Tali moved away further, unsure of where to go next.

"Tali, your heart and breathing rate have increased significantly," DOT informed her. "Are you well?"

"I'm fine, DOT," Tali assured her. "I need you to guide me again. Is there a way to get to the _Normandy's_ docking section from this part of the carrier?"

"I have designated a route," DOT soon replied. "I would advise however to return to the main corridors, as it would be faster and less hazardous, considering it would be sufficiently lighted."

"That's not an option," Tali told her. "Listen, I'm going to feed you some important codes to work through. They'll connect you to the security system. There are a few things we need to do before we get to the _Normandy_."

"I must note this is a highly irregular procedure, Tali," DOT informed her. "Perhaps we should contact-"

"Override procedural protocol, directive two-four-nine-eight-eight-seven-six-five-two-one-three," Tali demanded.

DOT processed the command briefly before finally accepting it.

"Override accepted, Tali," the AI responded. "Initiating tasks."

DOT was a dumb AI, easier to control that way. She didn't like doing this, but there was no other way. They needed her right now, even though they didn't know it or accept it. She needed to save them, more than herself, she needed to save them. No cost for her conscience was too great and she knew exactly where she needed to go first.

She raced through the dark, quickening her pace, refusing to look at the shadows even as she passed through them. The song neared its end and it again eased her thoughts, her doubts, her fears. They would forgive her, they had to.

 _ **When I'm walking a dark road**_

 _ **I am the man who walks alone**_

* * *

"You could stand to be more compassionate for once," Garrus told her bluntly.

"I don't have to stand for anything," Miranda replied as they walked. "The simple fact is that she is sick and coddling her is not going to help."

"So putting her in a cell does?" Garrus asked curtly.

"It was Shepard's decision," Miranda shot back.

"Which you pressured him into," Garrus stated. "This is not fair, Miranda."

"Fair is not a luxury we can afford when the people you rely upon have gone insane," she fired off in return. "What would you have had me do? Lock her up in a room on the _Normandy_? Hope it just passes? She'd have found a way to break out and cause who knows what kind of damage in her addled state. I am only thinking of the bigger picture, Garrus. It's nothing personal."

"Maybe not to you, but it is to Tali," Garrus informed her. "Everything is personal for quarians. I learned that the hard way when I was a total jerk to her when we first met. You are not doing her any favors."

"She doesn't need to like me, all I care about is her getting some sort of care," Miranda explained. "And her not harming herself further. Do you honestly think we should've let her go near that relic again? Assuming it is the root cause of all this?"

Garrus had no answer, which was as good as conceding in Miranda's mind. As they continued to walk to Miranda's room though, it was clear he was not done. He just needed to find a better way to explain it.

"Listen, before this all happened, Tali-"

"Complained to you and everyone about how I was being unfair to her," Miranda cut in suddenly. "I'm more than aware. I know half this ship doesn't particularly like me. I know I'm not the friendliest of this crew. Behind Jack in terms of sheer hatred, Tali is the one who most wishes I was thrown out an airlock. She said as much herself as I recall."

"She wasn't herself, you know that," Garrus tried to insist.

"No, Garrus, she was herself," Miranda stated bluntly. "That was just Tali without the filter. She hates me, I've always known she's hated me since day one. I'm not deaf and blind. I am also not entirely incapable of understanding why, because believe me... I get why."

Garrus crossed his arms, interested in hearing her answer. Miranda sighed, she had opened the door to this now. No going back.

"I've always rubbed people the wrong way," she admitted. "I expect perfection and excellence in everything. I have impossibly high standards. I know no one can ever attain them. But that should not stop them from at least aiming high. Not everyone likes my method of motivating them, but it does work most of the time. If I seem like I am pressuring Tali in her work, it is only because I know she can do better."

"Well I hate to tell you this, Miranda, but she doesn't know that," Garrus informed her. "When you berate her, criticize her, suggest she can be replaced-"

"I did not insinuate that," Miranda said defensively. "I simply asked if she felt she could use outside help. It's not my fault that she interpreted it as an attack on her-"

"Let me finish," Garrus said, pausing her. "When you do these things with her, you're not really motivating her. I think you're just reminding her of her dad. Specifically the father who never once admitted he appreciated her work or her efforts. The one she kept trying to please and failed."

Miranda was silent after that, her stern and frustrated visage slightly fading under the scrutiny. She looked unwavering at Garrus though, refusing to show weakness. Her resolve unflinching as ever.

"I can't control what happened in her family," she attempted to explain. "I... admit I never really considered it myself. I try not to think of my own father very much."

"This ship is full of complicated familial relations," Garrus confessed. "Not all of them reconciled. At least not in the best of ways."

"I can't wrap my head around the idea of trying so hard to please someone like that," she explained. "I gave up on my father rather quickly and spent a long time just trying to find a means of escape."

"The difference is Tali's father did love her, not in the best of ways but he did," Garrus explained succinctly. "I don't know how she feels entirely about him, but I know it is complicated."

"And mine isn't," Miranda reasoned.

Miranda could see the problem now, she didn't even really need Garrus to bother explaining further, or at all. Part of did know this already, Vakarian had just confirmed it. Tali's resentment towards her, the anger, she was letting loose what she never could speak to her father in life. It made sense, but Miranda knew it wasn't the only reason Tali hated her.

The facts were rather plain, so much so Miranda could easily list them off. She was Cerberus when they first met. Her personality clashed so evidently and viciously with Tali's own. Their core values and principles were different. She was more authoritative, critical and harder. Tali was the personable one, fast to make friends, people liked her on those merits alone. And while they were both hard working individuals, Miranda was more of a bureaucrat, Tali the working gal. Her workspace was a desk, Tali's a drive core. They were just so fundamentally different.

But Miranda knew the biggest rift between them, and dancing around it was pointless. Garrus would bring it up soon enough anyway. She broke her silence.

"If you think Shepard plays into this decision-"

"I don't," Garrus told her. "But take Tali's feelings into account. Just because she might have some walking nightmares plaguing her doesn't change anything about her. She probably suspects or knows you talked Shepard into this. How do you think that makes her feel?"

Rejected, tossed aside, angry, vengeful, more so than before. Miranda could see that, even understand it. Tali's fears were unfounded though. She had no interest, not even passing. Shepard had made it rather clear early on he wasn't interested and she was fine with that. She didn't spend two years of her life just rebuilding a sex puppet for herself. She was not some perverse lecher.

"The fact of it is, I hold no resentment or grudge," Miranda informed Garrus rather plainly. "I never have. I accept more often than not that many people don't like me. I'm fine with it. I don't need friends, at least not as many as Tali feels she does. My concern is her work, that is all."

"Perhaps it would do you some good to try and engage her on a level that wasn't purely professional," Garrus suggested.

"We have nothing in common, Garrus," Miranda stated. "The exercise would be pointless. We're aboard the ship, she hates me, I don't care enough to hate her back. Not all of us are going to be friends in life, we need to accept that."

"Letting it fester hasn't done any good either," Garrus informed her. "When she gets better-"

"If, we need to prepare for the worst," Miranda cautioned.

"When," Garrus insisted. "When she gets better the least you could do is sort this out. You don't have to be friends, but you don't need to hate each other either."

Miranda sighed, Garrus had a point, much as she hated to admit it.

"I suppose you want me to reconsider the cell then?" She asked.

"I'm asking you to get her a room, not part of the brig you spruced up to look nicer," Garrus stated.

"It was on short notice, I had to work with what we had," Miranda explained. "I didn't..."

She sighed again, no, no, he was right. She wasn't too proud to not admit that.

"Fine, we'll get her a room," she relented. "Something more comfortable."

Garrus looked pleased with that outcome. She had wanted to give Tali an actual room in the first place, she only ended up in the brig when they couldn't find something secure enough. There had to be something that would work aboard the _Justice_ , she just needed to find it. But there were other concerns.

"Until I locate a suitable place to put her, I need to go over the latest data points Taq managed to pull from the Relic so far," she said, looking over her datapad. "There has to be something we've missed. Something we can use to help her."

"So you do think the relic did this to her," Garrus reasoned.

"It could still be some lingering after effects from her ordeal, but that power surge from the relic happened to her pretty recently," Miranda recounted. "The chances of it being the catalyst are incredibly likely. So, it's the best place to start looking for an answer."

Garrus gave a bit of a smirk, which Miranda did not appreciate.

"What?" She asked him, annoyed.

"It's just nice to see you care for once," he told her.

"I do care about Tali's health," she insisted. "Just because I'm not her friend like you doesn't mean I take any joy in seeing her suffer. I want her to get better as much as Shepard, you, Kasumi or anyone. No one deserves to live a never ending nightmare."

She knew what that was like. At least when she was trapped living with her father she knew what was real and what wasn't. Her father wasn't some otherworldly horror either. But if there was one thing Tali had that she didn't have back then, it was far more friends willing to help her. She didn't count herself a friend, but she'd do what she could regardless.

"Well I don't think I need to tell you that if you do find something, let Shepard know," Garrus requested. "He's still in his cabin. Working up the courage to go see her I think."

"She won't be mad at him," Miranda assured. "She'll suspect I convinced him to quarantine her."

"I think that's a small comfort right now," he told her. "Give him a way to fix this and it will be a greater one."

"I'll try," Miranda promised.

With that, Garrus let her continue to her room. The doors swished open and she entered briskly, placing the datapad down the desk she looped around to sit in her chair. Bringing up the terminal, she opened up the latest information packets sent from Taq. She knew she wasn't the best person to transcribe all this, but Tali was really the only other expert on the Forerunners. Which was why she knew she needed some help.

Figuring she couldn't hate her more than she already did, Miranda had taken Halsey's Journal from Tali's quarters, hoping it would yield some insight on the matter. It didn't exactly have everything she needed, but it gave her a small crash course. She supposed she now understood Tali's desire to learn more about the Forerunners at least. All their technology, their advancements, why wouldn't the quarian want to learn more? What scant information in Halsey's books would only have been the first course.

Taq didn't have much at the moment and most of these were her first couple of notes from over the previous few days. She skipped much of the stuff concerning the "Astral Cutlass" and tried to focus in on the passages referring to what the relic actually did. Which was little, mostly speculation. The theory was it was an amplification device. Something that increased the power output and capabilities of computerized machinery. It would explain how it had kept the security system on the _Dauntless_ wreck alive for so long. That did not really explain how it could be making Tali see visions. It did explain where the power surge that hit the quarian came from though. Tali ripping it from its connection to the system caused a power backlash. The relic probably reset to standby mode and expelled the excess energy buildup to accomplish that.

Miranda hoped Taq would have something new soon. The kig-yar was apparently double downing on her work schedule, pushing herself to perform more tests and experiments. Miranda imagined Taq was more than eager to do so given the circumstances, but she hoped Tali's condition would impress the importance on her. She had heard that the kig-yar had grown rather fond of the quarian pretty quickly down in the _Dauntless_. Miranda hoped that wasn't just people projecting their opinions onto Taq. They needed her expertise on this and some emotional investment always helped in speeding that along.

As she went over the files, Miranda noted the sound of music in the background. Classical Synth of course, it was soothing, helped her concentrate. She preferred it low though, she didn't want it distracting her too much. However it seemed louder now, which was odd. Then it switched over completely to BBR, she could tell from the loud metal music that now replaced her favored play list. Said music soon hit the high notes and filled the cabin. She would've gotten up to change it back, had she not noticed her door suddenly lock up. The lyrics on whatever song was playing started.

 _ **Won't you come into my room, I wanna show you all my wares.**_

 _ **I just want to see your blood, I just want to stand and stare.**_

In a second she knew what was happening, but it was too late. Her biotic amp suddenly pulsed terrible backlash, a dampener attack, her abilities had been completely shut down. Then her head was smashed against the desktop.

 _ **See the blood begin to flow as it falls upon the floor.**_

 _ **Iron Maiden can't be fought, Iron Maiden can't be sought.**_

Miranda clutched at the back of her head as her hair was pulled behind, forcing her to stand. Even addled by the sudden shock, she recognized the visor covered visage of her attacker. Tali stared back at her fury emblazoned in her silver eyes.

"You made the same mistake people like you always do, Lawson," she snarled at her. "You underestimated a quarian."

Tali forced her into the back wall forcing her hand over Miranda's mouth to keep her silent. Miranda struggled, but Tali slammed her head back into the wall again to keep her dazed.

"I know you're still working for Cerberus," she growled, using her other hand to start choking her. "You thought you fooled everyone, you almost fooled me, but I know now. I should've known sooner, you're a liar. You've always been a liar. Well, Little Miss Perfect, how's it feel to have your lies all crumble around you?"

She threw Miranda into the corner of the wall leading to her bed, smashing her nose against it. She quickly turned, trying to catch Tali in a stasis field. Instead, an omni-blade cut her palm. Miranda retracted it, but soon found the same blade held to her neck.

"If you're hoping EDI will send for help, don't bother," Tali told her. "I know this ship better than any of the people the Illusive Man hired to put it together. Upgraded security myself. All EDI is seeing right now is a loop of you at your desk typing constantly. Still think you're smarter than me, bitch? Still think you're better than us quarians?"

"Tali, stop-"

"Shut up!" Tali shouted at her. "I've had to listen to you and your superior act ever since I first met you. Well you're done. Finished. You thought you could fool everyone, but that's over. Everyone is going to know what a filthy, lying sack of shit you really are, Lawson. And then you'll be in the brig. How's that make you feel?"

"You're not well, Tali," Miranda tried to tell her, the blade close to her throat. "I... I just want to help you. We all wa-"

"I'm so sick of you and your bullshit," Tali sneered. "You never thought I was good enough for him! You resented me more when he chose me over you! Couldn't stand that he fell in love with the alien over your perfect ass and big genetically gifted breasts! Well you're not taking him, you understand? Shepard loves me! And there's not a damn thing you can do about it! Because after I save everyone, they're going to learn how you're a traitor and how you're a liar and I'll be there to just laugh and laugh and laugh until they decide to shove you in the airlock and let the air seep out until you choke and die. Perfect death for the perfect bitch."

Miranda felt her powers star to resonate a bit, she had to make a move now. Tali would kill her otherwise, but she needed the blade away from her throat. She made the only plead she could.

"I don't want Shepard, I never wanted Shepard," she tried to tell him. "It was the Illusive Man's idea that-"

"So you admit it! You're still working for him! I knew it! I knew it!"

Tali moved the blade back and that was When Miranda struck, hitting Tali with a slight Biotic Push to throw her off. Miranda could hardly scream out, her throat so badly crushed by Tali's previous grip. She made for the door, ducking just as Tali lunged out with her omni-blade. Miranda ducked just in time, the blade only slicing some of her hair off. She reached for the door, but Tali grabbed her hair and flung her back over her own chair, the metal music pounding in her head as she tumbled over.

 _ **Oh Well, wherever, wherever you are,**_

 _ **Iron Maiden's gonna get you, no matter how far.**_

 _ **See the blood flow watching it shed up above my head.**_

 _ **Iron Maiden wants you for dead.**_

Tali now scrambled over top of Miranda and brought her omni-blade up, aiming it towards the between space of Miranda's eyes. The quarian's breathing was frantic, harsh, her eyes filled with hatred, her fists tightening. But she held back from what she obviously wanted to do.

"No, it's too good for you," she growled.

"Tali, stop this," Miranda pleaded. "We're crewmates. Allies. I don't work for Cerberus anymore. Whatever you think this is, you're wrong. That relic is messing with your head, this isn't you."

"What is me? Meek little Tali who is just some pathetic little quarian you can boss around? Belittle? Bully into following your every command?" Tali questioned. "No, that's not me. What I am... is better than anything you think. Better than you. And I'm going to prove it."

Tali delivered a punch directly to Miranda's temple, knocking her right out. Tali dragged her by her hair and forced her into her bed. She then reached into one of her storage compartments for some adhesive tape. It had been a smart move to stop by a supply closet before entering the _Normandy_ through a lower airlock compartment in the engine. She had needed to stock up on tools anyway. After binding Miranda's hands, feet and taping closed her mouth, she headed for Miranda's computer.

She could've cracked Miranda's passcode easy, but Tali knew that Lawson would realize what she had done. Worse, she suspected that there was an alarm rigged to EDI and the rest of the ship if unauthorized access to Miranda's files were detected. Besides, this way was more satisfying. Miranda had unlocked the computer for her, now it was just a matter of getting all the information she needed downloaded into her Omni-Tool.

There wasn't much in the way of useful stuff concerning the Relic's true nature, but she suspected Taq was already working along new lines of reasoning for a while now. Tali's imprisonment would've impressed a greater urgency on her. For now this was a good baseline.

What Tali actually wanted was information on where the Relic was now. She looked for it, but found nothing. She had hoped Miranda had been more negligent. She was able to figure out where it wasn't from a lot of suggested locations that had been quickly rejected. At least she knew where not to look. She also learned, by backtracking the source of Taq's forwarded research intel, that the Jackal was currently aboard the _Crusty Chorka_ under close watch. Miranda had suggested it, thinking it would be safer, just in case anything happened.

Perhaps Lawson hadn't underestimated her completely. No matter, Tali could get around all that easy. Taq had to know where the relic was, it was the only way she could study everything. She'd also have more up to date information on the relic. It was her best shot at getting to the voice, the only way she could kill it. She had a plan now. Get to Taq, get her intel, find out where the relic was and take it.

 **You injure your friends, but you do not kill. You deny them peace, but bring them more pain.**

Tali looked to the screen again on the computer and saw the Precursor, the creature, whatever it was. Once again, it was taunting her.

"She's not my friend, but I won't kill her, she needs to suffer," Tali claimed.

 **Suffering is inevitable. Suffering is life. Death is peace. If you truly wish to save your crew, you should let them die.**

"Go to hell, Bosh'tet," Tali scolded it. "Save me the trouble."

 **We are already damned. Our existence is as such. But it is damnation with solace. Satisfaction. Relief. It could be yours too.**

Tali shut the terminal down. She had what she needed. And it seemed a little more, as she spotted Halsey's journal on the desk. Taking it in her arms she looked to Miranda again.

"When you wake up, you'll get what you deserve," she swore. "I won't let you win. I won't let it win."

She exited out of the emergency duct, replacing the cover as she entered. The last bits of the Iron Maiden song echoing in the room as she descended.

 _ **Iron Maiden's gonna get all of you!**_

* * *

"How bad is it exactly?" Cortana asked.

"Shepard wouldn't say," Chief explained. "Just that it might have something to do with the Flood attack she endured on Halo."

Cortana kicked herself mentally for not being there. She had been engrossed in other tasks in preparation for their return to Reach. She had actually tried to approach Tali concerning her project, at least get an update on the Slipspace Drive's progress. After the first try though, Cortana could tell she was under a degree of stress and let her be. She thought the quarian would come to her for help when she needed it.

Now, out of Chief's head and inside one of the _Ascendant Justice's_ computing terminals, she couldn't help but feel that had been a mistake. Something had happened to the quarian, she was seeing things, nightmares walking around her. It was making her erratic, dangerous, paranoid. Screaming about creatures who existed before the Forerunners. As of now, she was in a sort of quarantine while they tried to fix what was happening to her. Hard to do when no one knew what was wrong.

"It can't be the Flood though," she told Chief. "They burned it out of her, with electric shocks even. She wasn't infected yet, but under some kind of psychic attack from some spores trying to breach her mind."

"That was Mordin's diagnosis," Chief concurred. "But she could sense the Flood, or at least a specific creature form, after the encounter."

"Residual psychic effect of the trauma," Cortana clarified. "But I don't think there are any Flood aboard this ship that could be using that to its advantage."

"Which leaves the most likely suspect, the relic," Chief continued. "Tali got the closest to it when it gave off that energy pulse."

Cortana remembered, they hadn't expected that surge to happen when they pulled the relic loose. Correction, when Tali pulled it loose. It had thrown her for a loop, but she seemed fine. Perhaps this was a lingering side-effect from the pulse then.

"But Linda, Kat and Taq were all there," Cortana recalled. "They're perfectly fine. Why would the pulse, whatever it was, only effect Tali?"

Cortana quickly realized what Chief had been implying before.

"You think the psychic trauma from the spores has something to do with this," she reasoned. "Why else would she be the only one inflicted with these illusionary experiences."

"You were the only other person there Cortana," Chief informed her. "The only one who would've had the ability to process what was going on faster than anyone. Was there anything weird about the energy pulse from the relic? Anything that felt off?"

"Now that I think about it," Cortana thought aloud, placing a hand to her chin. "Just before the pulse occurred, the energy surge from the relic seemed... off. That's the best way I can describe it honestly."

"Off how?" Chief asked curiously.

"Well it didn't exactly match the energy output from the rest of the ship," Cortana explained. "Considering it was powering many significant systems, you'd think it would match somewhat. I chalked it up to a glitch or the surge messing with the sensor read outs I was plugged into at the time. But giving it more thought... why so much jury rigging to make a relic of Forerunner origin, no matter how old, compatible with their own ship? Some I could understand, but that was a heavy duty setup in there. What if there was a different energy supply within the relic itself? Something they were trying to bypass or filter?"

"You think there's something to Tali's Precursor story then?" Chief asked.

"I know Tali well enough to know she does not just make things up from thin air," Cortana explained. "There's more going on here, Chief. I need to go over those ship log records. I downloaded a copy."

"Anything I can do?" Chief asked.

"Get Kat in here maybe?" Cortana requested. "She can help me parse through some of this stuff."

Chief just nodded and went off to find his fellow Spartan. Cortana in the meantime pulled up what files she could and tried to work through them. Surely there was something in here about the relic.

* * *

Taq was deep in thought as she poured over what data she could pull from the relic. She honestly thought this would be easy, she had cracked Forerunner artifacts before. This one was different though, unlike previous pieces she had uncovered. It didn't follow the same rules as other Forerunner mechanisms. All her usual tricks failed, the various strategies she had used prior all coming up short. She only managed to decrypt bits and pieces of the information within the artifact. She didn't understand why.

True, it could be because this piece was far more complicated, that her usual methods were perhaps just not good enough on their own to crack it, but something felt off. It was as if she was working in an entirely different language, or dialect. That this was not the Forerunner tech she knew. Perhaps it was just older, that made sense somewhat. This was probably an older specimen with different rules, harder to crack because it was so old and out of date with standard Forerunner tech.

Then again, why would it be harder to decrypt? It would stand to reason that an ancient relic would have less security than something more advanced. And if it was older and incompatible, why hook it up to your systems to keep them powered up for so many countless millenia? None of this made sense.

"Ugh, come on, there's gotta be something in all this... junk," she grumbled silently to herself. "What are you hiding? What's your full function? How do you work? Where is the Cutlass? Give me something at least."

Taq decided this was getting her nowhere, she needed a new angle. Perhaps there was something in her backlog data she pulled from the _Dauntless'_ computers she could use to figure this out. Pulling it up on the terminal, she searched through what little she could decipher concerning the relic. It was deep encryption, but she cracked it eventually. Looking over it again more carefully this time would probably yield some results.

The Forerunners kept describing the relic as a sort of amplification device. That was the vague description they used, but not a complete one. They did claim it could be used as a power source, but that was just a byproduct of the artifact's energy output. An output it generated all on its own. It could do more than that though, it could enhance the function of anything it was powering. No wonder they seized upon using it to keep their security system running.

Thing was, the notes suggested it took them some time to figure out how to do that. Lots of experimentation, construction, trial and error. Why would the people who made the thing have so little idea on how to apply it from the start? Taq supposed the relic's function was outside their field of expertise, but you'd think someone would've told them something about what this thing could do. More relevant, that syncing it to their systems would not be so problematic. Not unless, it wasn't their technology to start with.

She was starting to come around to poor Tali's hypothesis at this point, that maybe this thing wasn't Forerunner. Poor quarian, Taq hated to think how she was suffering right now. She was such a bright girl, she deserved better than this. However, if her affliction had given her insight into the relic's true nature, then perhaps something good could come out of this.

Taking the possibility this was not a Forerunner relic into account, she scanned through the notes on the _Dauntless'_ crew's experiments. With that in mind, she found a sequence in their experiments, something that she didn't recognize. They weren't normal symbols, not ones associated with the Forerunners anyway. Taq copied the sequence and returned to her other screen. She had the Relic hooked up to a wireless data uplink, something she could use to pull or input information from and into the artifact without being in the same room as it. That way she didn't have to be stuck with it constantly and risk whatever happened to Tali happening to her.

With the sequence input, suddenly a wealth of new information flooded the screen. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do to read most of it. Everything was a mess of strange symbols various confusing datapoints. She worked through the problem all the same and could read a few minor lines here and there. There were similarities to the Forerunner language and computing code, it was just harder to read.

"Amplification require input," she read carefully. "Standby mode initiate. Memory storage functional? Transmission in progress? What the hell?"

What transmission? With her uplink? No, this wasn't about her equipment. It was reading normal, no increase in uploading or downloading strength. The relic wasn't syncing with it, but it was syncing to something. There was no other machine connected to it, no other system, unless it was connecting via wireless. She looked further into the datapoints and could read one other line related to the so-called transmission.

"Resonance detected," she spoke aloud. "Memory storage unlocked. Processing Operation Procedure. What is all this?"

She felt something cool against her back at that moment and froze.

"It's the voice, speaking, screeching, screaming," the familiar electronic filtered speech answered. "What I keep warning of. What you don't see but I hear."

Taq turned around slowly and saw Tali staring back at her, holding a pistol in hand towards Taq's head now.

"Tali," she said, trying to smile amicably. "What a... pleasant surprise. I was just thinking about you."

"I bet a lot of people are," Tali said, suddenly reaching to her head to hold it tightly. "But I'd prefer if you'd listen more, like I'm forced to do. All I can do is listen to it, that thing in the void. The Precursor or whatever it is now."

Tali forced Taq to back away from the terminal and kept the gun pointed at the kig-yar. As she did, she placed and OSD disk into the computer and began downloading. Taq kept her distance and remained wary, unsure of how much the relic has effected the quarian's mind. Her envirosuit was dirtied and tattered, clearly she had been slumming it in the cramped quarters of the ship. Trying her best to stay out of sight and her profile low. From her posture and body language, Tali was not her usual bright and happy self and her silver eyes no longer felt as inviting and bright. They were more pale, vicious, pointed, frantic, just like her.

"Tali," Taq began carefully. "I can understand that this must be... trying for you right now. You're having a difficult evening, I can tell."

"I doubt you understand much of anything," Tali snapped. "You and everyone else don't believe me, you think I'm insane. That... that I'm just cracking because I almost died in a damn swamp with a bunch of killer corpses chasing me!"

Taq stepped back a bit, keeping her hands up.

"Tali, I actually believe you," she tried to explain. "The relic... I think it is Precursor, or at least not Forerunner. The _Dauntless_ crew didn't know how to get it to work with their equipment at first. That could only make sense if-"

"If it wasn't a Forerunner relic, I told you!" Tali insisted, keeping the gun pointed. "I told all of you but you didn't listen! You all just think I'm stupid and worthless! That's what Lawson thought, well she just found out how wrong she is!"

Taq gulped, concern on her face.

"What... what did you do to-"

"She's alive, but she'll be lucky to remain that way when everyone finds out she's a traitor," Tali growled in response. "She was still kind enough to give me everything I needed. Her files on the relic, Halsey's Journal that she stole, this gun, and indirectly how to find you."

Tali looked to the screen quickly and scanned the information on them.

"So, you've managed to unlock it?" She asked the kig-yar.

"I've figured out how to open the networking systems and find out what it's doing," Taq explained quickly. "Tali, it's transmitting something. Something from a memory bank or whatever and I don't think it's a machine it's sending it to."

"Of course it's not a machine, it's me!" Tali insisted. "Why can't you people understand that! There's something speaking through it to me!"

"I don't think it works like that," Taq tried to explain. "There's an outgoing signal from the relic, but there is no inbound signal. It's something from the memory-"

"It doesn't matter," Tali growled. "What matters is I was right, that I'm not insane. Something is contacting me and I need to kill it."

"What we need to do is find a way to sever the connection," Taq tried to argue. "If we can interrupt the transmission-"

"No!" Tali shouted in a rage. "No! Not until it is dead! Not until I've killed it!"

"Do you even know what you're trying to kill?" Taq asked frantically. "Or if you even can kill it? This thing is apparently capable of talking to you psychically across the darkness of space from who knows how many lightyears away. I don't think this is something you can just shoot a bunch."

"Don't tell me what I can't do," Tali snarled. "All my life I've had people outside the Flotilla telling me I can't do anything. That I'm worthless. But they're wrong, you're all wrong. A quarian is going to save your miserable lives, whether you like it or not. So you best get used to that fast."

The download soon completed and Tali pulled the OSD disk out again. She pocketed it and began searching the room, practically ransacking it. Ripping shelves out, pulling out panels, Taq did her best to skirt along towards the door while the quarian was distracted. Maybe she could lock her in and call some Marines. But, Tali turned and rushed her, pinning her against the wall and keeping the gun pointed on her.

"Where is it?" She demanded. "Where's the relic?"

"It's not here," Taq said through gritted teeth. "I'm not sure what it did to you, but I'm not letting it happen to me. Tali, we're trying to help you! Don't you see that?"

"You're not helping me, you're trying to help yourself," Tali snarled. "All of you kig-yar, you Jackals, you're just trying to figure out where your stupid sword is!"

"Listen to yourself, Tali! You're running around, fighting crewmembers, pointing guns in the faces of your allies, this is insane!" Taq shouted back. "You can't possibly think this is the best course of action! You're smarter than this!"

"I am smarter! But I have no choice!" Tali stated. "This is the only way! Now where is the damn relic?!"

"If you're so smart, you figure it out," Taq suggested. "Use your brain, and I mean _your_ brain, not whatever else is in there with you. Maybe then you'll realize you're acting out of your mind!"

Tali did seem to start thinking more, her mind wheels turning. The answer she came to though was not the one Taq wanted.

"The _Fallen Serpent_ ," she reasoned. "Your room on Zek's ship. It's the one place secure enough for it, after that nonsense with the Syndicate agents, Retz beefed up security. He consulted me on some of it too. That's why you hid it there!"

Taq knew she had given it away the second her eyes started to dart in desperation, trying to look for something to grab. But Tali pressed harder.

"Get me aboard!" She ordered. "Transmit your access codes, get me on board!"

"I won't," Taq said resolutely. "You're sick, Tali. That relic will not help you. You need to trust in your friends."

"You're not my friends!" Tali screeched. "You're all scheming against me, conspiring! Telling me garbage lies to convince myself I'm insane! I don't need convincing! I _am_ going insane! I know what's causing it! And everyone here is simply helping it along!"

"Well you can't convince me to help you destroy yourself more, Tali," Taq responded. "I'm not going to let a young promising fellow scholar of the Forerunners do that to themselves. The _Serpent_ is far too locked down for you to sneak on board like the rest of the carrier or the _Chorka_ apparently. As for the threats, I don't believe for a second you're going to kill me to get access either! So you might as well just give up now and let us damn well help you another way!"

Tali fumed in anger and then smashed her pistol upside Taq's head, knocking her out. She refrained from doing worse though. Tali's hands shook in a fright, her mind growing more confused and addled. She was running out of time, every second her aggressive impulses grew stronger, her control weaker. The voice was growing stronger, she had to silence it.

"I'm losing myself," she said frantically. "I... I don't want to hurt them. This isn't me. It's... it's the voice, that thing."

As her panic grew, however, she suddenly felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, little one, none of this is your fault," her mother's voice whispered in your ear. "A little pain now will save them an endless torture to come. You are still you, for the moment. The more you doubt, the more you let the monster inside win. You cannot let that happen. You are stronger than this, Tali. Stronger than all of them. And you know what must be done."

The hand left and Tali's shaking stopped, her resolve restored. She couldn't doubt the mission, she had to keep going. She needed the relic and there was only one way to get to it aboard the _Serpent_ to get it.

* * *

Miranda had woken up tied in her bed with adhesive tape, trapping her limbs and her mouth. Along with the loud music of BBR still playing, no one could even hear her muffled screams. She couldn't tell what time it was, but she suspected it had been a while. All she knew was she couldn't call for help and she couldn't really move all that effectively.

The good thing was she could remain calm, whereas other people would not. That was the thing about tying up people, the idea was they'd keep panicking and be unable actually think things through. Even with her head throbbing from Tali's punch, she always thought it through. Although she had to admit, Tali punched way harder than she had imagined she was was capable of. Perhaps she had underestimated her a bit.

Rolling off her bed though, Miranda knew she could get out of this, even with all of Tali's forward thinking. The quarian had to have known this was a temporary fix, not killing would mean her escape would be discovered. That meant two things, Tali wasn't completely gone for one. True, she said she wanted her to suffer for her treason, but she could've taken the law into her own hands. Tali's morality was still intact and therefore so was some of her personality. However, it also meant that Tali probably didn't think they'd be able to stop her after a certain point. Miranda just hoped that it wasn't too late to do so.

Using her legs to inch herself backwards, Miranda moved towards her desk. She pressed her back against the wall and used it to prop herself up. As she slid up the wall, she was finally able to stand, but only barely. She hopped over to the desk, using her tied hands in front of her to hold herself there. Moving her arm to prop herself against the desk, she opened one of the drawers. Being so meticulously organized had its perks, she knew exactly where to find one of her pens. Reaching inside, she grasped it in her fingers and then moved to use the sharp to start cutting into the tape.

It wasn't easy, cutting tape binding your wrists with a pen awkwardly held within your fingers wasn't ideal. Eventually though, something started to rip. And one little rip was enough. Forcing her hands to part from each other, Miranda tore through the tape, releasing her bindings at last. She raced to rip off the tape from her mouth, stripping it off like a bandaid. It hurt like hell, but it didn't matter. At least she could talk again.

"Help!" She started shouting. "Someone! Get in here! Help!"

She began tearing off the tape on her legs, which took a little less longer than ripping the stuff off her wrists had. As she managed to get the last of it off, she stood and rushed to the door, the sounds of her crewmates clearly audible outside. The door was still locked shut, thanks in part to Tali's actions. She could correct that now though. Using her own omni-tool, Tali hadn't bothered to take that with her at least. She began a quick bypass to override the lock. It took less than ten seconds.

The doors flung open, revealing Jacob and Garrus standing nearby. As Miranda stumbled out, her head still uneasy from Tali's blow, Jacob moved to keep her from falling to the floor. She brushed him off, standing up under her own power.

"Miranda, what happened?" He asked. "We thought you were just pulling a late night or-"

"It was Tali," she quickly informed him. "Tali was here, she knocked me out, tied me up and made off with all relevant data about the relic on my computer."

"What?" Garrus questioned in disbelief. "How did she get inside? Why is she-"

"Just get Shepard," she ordered. "He needs to know. We have to find her before she does something even worse."

* * *

" _That thing in the cellar is not my mother!"_

And that seemed to be the cue for the guy behind the lady to jump up, wearing a monster face now and start screaming at everyone while floating in the air. Because of course, why not at this point?

" _We are the things that were and shall be again! Wahahahaha!"_ The possessed human claimed. _"Spirits of the book! We want what is yours! LIFE! Dead by dawn! Dead by dawn!"_

Zek continued munching down claw-fulls of the salty human popcorn as the vid continued. Slightly amused and a bit disturbed by everything happening on the screen. Although he suspected that was the point.

"I think the take away from all these vids is that the humans have some delightfully twisted minds among them," he told Retz nonchalantly as the human female in the film almost choked to death on an eyeball. "It's kinda awesome."

"They certainly aren't bereft of clever ideas on how to kill people." Retz concurred.

For once, Zek and Retz were having their vid night outside, in a manner of speaking. They had finally convinced Holland that would be a great morale booster if off duty Marines, kig-yar, batarians and whoever else wanted some time off, had a place to watch any vid they wanted. A neutral ground, specifically on the carrier itself. So, with some help from the unggoy and huragok, the latter of which required a lot of supervision from the Marines and Army folks, they set up a nice little theater of sorts in the spacious hangar bay. There was more than enough space there and plenty of it not being used. That way they could get a bigger holoscreen.

For most of the night they had either been watching vids or taking an intermission to listen to BBR and Boz's latest Earth band showcase, Iron Maiden. He had gotten way into them, probably because out of all the old musicians from the humans' home planet, they seemed to be big on telling stories through their songs. Given their ancestors' ancient traditions of doing the same, Zek couldn't help but admire it a little himself.

As for the crowd itself watching the proceedings with them, Zek was happy to see a few humans with them. They had wanted to see the vids themselves, but were far too squeamish about walking onto a kig-yar ship for whatever reason. At least here they were semi-comfortable. Even if most of the crowd was still kig-yar or unggoy. There was also probably one batarian, but Zek imagined he was only here to see humans get killed on screen.

Still, it felt like a success, like they had brought people together. Maybe now Haverson would realize that they were team players. And thus layoff the annoying jerk routine a bit, so he wouldn't get nosey and find something aboard the _Serpent_ that would ruffle his non-existent feathers more. Like the sugar lab he was prepping for one.

"So the guy who lost his hand and has his hair slicked back and stuff, he's the hero right?" Zek asked. "I mean, he's the only one left that seems to fit the bill right now."

"I guess, why you ask?" Retz questioned in response.

"Just saying, little weird to have the guy who was recently going insane in a cabin not long ago as the hero," Zek explained. "You'd think he'd be more confident, cool, collected. Badass."

"Perhaps it's a human thing, the unlikely protagonist," Retz suggested. "Destined for greater things than he or the audience can think he's capable of."

"Heh, well he better get his shit together quick," Zek stated. "Otherwise these... creepy demon things are going to kill everyone."

As Zek took another swig of his ichor, his loins started feeling... full. He probably should've guessed this would happen, he had been drinking a lot of the stuff. Most of it from their new infant Chorka friends. Not enough alcohol in their secretions to get you drunk and keep you drunk for long yet, they needed a bit more growing up. But someone had to give them a "taste" run, so to speak. Problem was just getting a buzz took longer and so he had drunk and now...

"Gotta bleed the little fledgling downstairs," he told Retz as he stood up.

"Why must you always call it that?" His friend asked exasperated.

"Because it annoys you," Zek laughed. "Don't worry about keeping me appraised, I'll run the live feed through my tool."

"Good, I'm not your recapper," Retz responded.

Zek just laughed, this was all good natured by the way. He needed to whizz, and fast. He wouldn't have to go far. There was a banshee nearby he could sneak behind. No way was he going to go all the way to the restroom, this hangar was huge. He'd never get back there in time. For all he knew, Retz would've eaten the rest of his popcorn by then.

Once behind the banshee, Zek began to do his business, watching the vid play out on his omni-tool as he did. He tried to follow the action, was a tree attacking the female now? And forcing its branches through her skin?

"Oh Ocean, humans are fucked in the head," he grimaced.

It was at that moment, her felt an arm grasp around the back of his neck and gun press into his temple.

"Shipmaster," a familiar electronically synthed voice said. "Enjoying vid night?"

"Tali?" Zek asked, struggling against her hold. "The fuck are you-?"

"Shut up," Tali whispered harshly. "You scream and this gets harder for you. Way harder."

Zek had heard the quarian was under the weather or something from Kasumi. She wasn't herself, something about stress getting to her? She needed to be sequestered? He couldn't recall exactly, but this seemed a bit more dire. She was frantic, her eyes constantly darting about like a scared animal. Oh and of course the fact he was now a hostage, that was a bit extreme.

"Your ship command codes," Tali began to demand frantically. "I need full access, now."

"Why?" Zek said, practically choking.

"Not your concern," Tali sneered. "Not that you Jackals are ever concerned with anything but yourselves. You're only alive because Shepard trusted you and all you do is lie to him constantly. Lie to us. Well, now you're going to help us, whether you like it or not."

This did not sound like Tali. He didn't know her too well, but Kasumi always described her as a level-headed, kind hearted sort. Loyal to a fault, always thinking of others, hardly a mean-spirited bone in her body. This was not that Tali. This was a desperate, angry, embittered, crazed Tali. One that wanted access to his boat. That wasn't happening.

"I don't know what the fuck is going on with you, ma'am," Zek stated. "But seriously, I highly doubt Shepard would approve of this kind of coercion."

"Just shut up and give me access," Tali demanded.

"No," Zek said steadfast. "And killing me ain't going to get you them either. They won't unlock for anyone without my say so. You should know, Retz-"

"Consulted with me on improving security for your ship," Tali acknowledged for him. "No matter, there are other ways."

She holstered her gun, but now forced Zek's arm back towards her, bringing it near her hand attached to the arm still wrapped around Zek's throat.

"You should've made it easy," she snarled, even as Zek kept choking.

The position was suffocating him, slowly. He could feel his tongue bulging out of his beak. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tali hacking his omni-tool, her eyes transfixed on it.

"I may not know the access codes for the _Serpent_ , but I know hacking," Tali claimed, typing furiously. "And while you're clever, Zek, you're not nearly as tech smart as Retz."

He could see her typing in a password into his encrypted files, writing the words "TaqIsHotness" into box. In seconds, the omni-tool was completely unlocked and Tali was transferring the codes to her own tool.

"Amateur," the quarian laughed. "Only took me ten tries. Never make your password a phrase, idiot. You've been watching too many crappy vids."

Zek had no other option, he had to act. He didn't know what was going on, but he was not going to let it stand. He reeled his head forward and then slammed it back, smashing his skull into her face plate. He didn't crack the visor, but he did force her to let go of him. As soon as he was out of her grasp he ran back to theater section and began screaming.

"Guys! Guys! Problem! All hands on deck!"

Retz turned instantly and could see Zek running towards him, Tali behind him, keeping her omni-tool outstretched and her hand on the gun in her holster. Others turned around, tearing their eyes from the holoscreen, even though it was getting crazy interesting with the male hero was running around possessed by an ancient demon.

Several Jackals were soon pointing their weapons at Tali, as Zek rushed behind Retz, holding his throat. Retz didn't budge or raise a weapon, but he did remain resolute.

"Ms. Zorah, is there a problem?" He tried to ask calmly.

"Problems, plural," Tali claimed, keeping her weapon at the ready and pointed at them all. "You're all problems. All of you. From the conniving jackals to the bosh'tet batarians to the xenophobic UNSC. You all have your stupid petty problems. None of you understand, no one but me! I understand it all and it's driving me insane! It's killing me from the inside while you all laugh and joke and watch stupid vids from a culture that's not even yours!"

"She's not herself, Retz," Zek tried to explain. "Something is wrong with her."

"Well that much is obvious," Retz grumbled down to his friend before looking back at the quarian. "Tali, if you're suffering that much... maybe we can help you. But you're going to need to lower that gun and come with us."

Tali looked to her omni-tool briefly, just as it started beeping and flashing green.

"I don't need you, I got what I need," she declared. "I'm going to save you all from your own stupidity. You don't deserve it, but I'm still going to save you. Because I'm not a selfish hedonistic idiot like all of you. I'm quarian, I put the crew first, even if I have to fight them all to do it."

Tali turned and shot one of the plasma coils on the banshee behind her and started running. The crowd itself ran too, just before the small explosion burst forth from the light aircraft. Not enough to destroy the banshee or injure anyone, but enough to create a big ball of fire that no one dared get close to.

"She's got the codes to the ship!" Zek explained, blocking his eyes from the flames. "We gotta stop her!"

"I got her boss!" One of his kig-yar claimed as he hefted a Carbine up to his eye. "One right through the shoulder blades."

Zek's eyes widened and he rushed over to his crewmate. He pushed the rifle up and away from its target, just as the kig-yar tried to fire.

"Hey what the-?"

"Idiot! Don't shoot her!" Zek shouted. "She's a member of Shepard's crew!"

"She attacked you!" The kig-yar whined.

"You wanna explain to Commander Shepard why you killed his chief engineer then by shooting her in the back?" Zek screeched at him. "Seriously? The fuck you thinking?"

The kig-yar backed off, thankfully before Zek needed to explain himself further. He and Retz were the only two pirates who knew of Shepard and Tali's relationship. He would never get anywhere with Shepard if one of his crew killed Tali. Besides, this didn't seem like the poor girl's fault. Something was really wrong with her.

"We need to find out what is going on, Retz, fast," Zek told his friend. "Call up Shepard, tell him what happened and get some people back down to the _Serpent_. Get Boz to issue a bulletin, non-lethal force only."

"Of course," Retz agreed. "I'll take a party myself to the ship. See to this personally."

Retz took off, his usual hyper focused mode clearly engaged. Zek just looked on as the mess sorted itself out and various vid watchers shuffled about trying to make sense of everything. So much for the inaugural Hangar Bay Theater screening. It would seem they were going to star in their very own vid now instead. As the male hero on the screen strapped on a chainsaw to his stump of a hand, he looked to the camera and declared "Groovy." Something told Zek, this would not be nearly as fun as the fictional human seemed to think it would be.

* * *

Miranda recounted everything while Chakwas fixed her up, doing her best to follow the good Doctor's instructions while she explained everything to Commander Shepard. He did not take what had to be said well. His stare was a mixture of cold anger and dizzying worry. He didn't even say anything as Miranda explained everything that had happened, he remained dead silent. At some point, Miranda felt like she wanted him to blame her for this. To call her out for putting Tali in a cell and driving her to this. Part of him must've wanted to say that, but he never did.

"None of this makes sense," he finally stated. "This... this shouldn't have happened."

"Tali knows this ship better than most," Miranda expressed. "We... I should've taken that into account honestly."

"No, I mean this shouldn't have happened because it's Tali," Shepard clarified, his voice sick with worry. "She isn't like this. In all the time I've known she has never been this brazen, this violent."

"I'm afraid that's the point, Shepard," Miranda stated as Chakwas finished up the bandages. "She isn't herself. She thinks the world is out to stop her from saving it. She thinks she can't rely on us. For whatever problems she might have, Tali knows she can trust her crew. This is what happens when she doesn't. She's... not in the right frame of mind though. It's not her fault."

It was a small attempt at comforting him, what little good it did. Shepard stopped pacing at least, that was something.

"Yeah," he relented sadly. "Yeah I know. But she is my responsibility. I should've been there when she woke up in the cell. Maybe I could've gotten through to her then."

"Something tells me you couldn't," Miranda insisted. "She thinks I'm a traitor and I've manipulated you. Her mind is finding ways to make people against her into enemies. Well, not her mind per se, the relic."

"So you agree it's causing this?" Shepard asked.

"I'm not ready to lay all the blame on it," Miranda elaborated succinctly. "But something tells me her getting closer to that thing would only make this worse."

"Whatever the case we need to get her back here," Chakwas declared. "In her mental state who knows what kind of damage she could do to herself or others. She is clearly in pain, we need to find a way to help her."

"Can we help her?" Shepard asked, almost pleading. "She's... she's not too far gone?"

"She still clearly cares about you," Miranda assured him. "That much is certain. Her mind is holding onto that much."

Shepard's hope returned somewhat, a spark of a chance lighting up his disposition. Tali was still in there, in some small way. They could bring her out of this delirium, somehow. Miranda wondered if it was wrong to give him that. For all they knew, Tali was too far gone. But Shepard needed something to hang onto, he was too personally wrapped up in this. He had to keep a clear head about this. The best way to do that right now was give him some angle to work with.

Luckily, Miranda didn't have to keep up being the voice of optimism alone. Before long, Garrus and Jacob had entered the med-bay, looking as solemn as when they had left earlier. Which could only mean they had no good news to report.

"How are you doing, Miranda?" Jacob asked concerned.

"Better, not dead anyway," Miranda assured him. "Right now, we have more pressing concerns."

"Do we have any leads on Tali yet?" Shepard asked hopefully, finishing Miranda's thought.

"Besides her assault on Zek at the hangar theater, no," Garrus answered sadly. "Search parties of Marines and Jackals swept the area, but she's nowhere near there anymore."

"Of course not, she's using the maintenance ducts," Miranda informed them. "It's the only way she can avoid detection and move around the ship at will."

As far as they could figure, that was how she escaped her cell in the first place. And the massive size of this ship meant there were a lot of ducts she could hide in. They could go in after her of course, but there was a concern of what Tali would have waiting for them. She knew she was being hunted, she could've set traps. While no one really suspected they would be lethal, no one could be certain they wouldn't be and even if they weren't it would still impede their progress.

Assuming there weren't any traps, they'd still have a virtual labyrinth to navigate. Tali could hide in there for days, perhaps weeks, but they knew that she had a plan that wouldn't need require that long to carry out. What they needed to do, was try to out think the quarian, figure out where she was going.

"Did we get anything more from, Zek?" Shepard asked.

"Just what his all points bulletin warned the Fleet about over BBR," Jacob explained. "She has access to the _Serpent's_ security net now. Retz tried to log in and lock her out, but she's already blocked that function entirely. Anyone with clearance is hardlocked into the system's database."

"So she's still headed for the ship," Shepard reasoned. "Didn't take her long to circumvent the security, she works fast."

"She always has," Garrus agreed. "But at least we know where she's headed. Kasumi is already out there with the search parties trying to lock things down. The rest of the crew is about to head out to join her. We figure if she gets aboard the _Serpent_ or at least tries to, we can cut her off and trap her inside. It should give us a chance to talk to her."

"And then what?" Shepard asked. "How do we break this hold over her mind?"

"Taq is already awake again and double timing her efforts," Jacob assured calmly. "Better security this time too. She's not happy about that it seems, but she's dealing with the extra eyes regardless. She wants to help Tali as much as any of us."

That was good to hear, when everyone worked as a team in tandem, Shepard was always more at ease. His tone and tambour for one somewhat relaxed as he realized this himself.

"I just hate thinking about what's happened," he explained, looking most directly at Garrus. "Tali is one of the most brilliant women I've ever met. It's hard believing that this could happen to her."

"I feel the same, but that doesn't change facts," Garrus told him earnestly. "Something has gotten into her head. And while I'm not sure if the relic is responsible or if any of it is real, it's real to her. Tali is smart, brave, she's all of that and more. We just never thought about how that could make her dangerous because she was on our side before. Though technically, she still is. From the sound of everything, she thinks she's saving us."

"But she doesn't trust us to let her do it, I know," Shepard relented. "If we can just show her that this is all some trick, an illusion. Something... implanted in her head..."

"We don't know what it is, honestly," Miranda informed him. "Until Taq finds something in the relic's data we can use, we got nothing to show her. Nothing to prove to her that she's wrong. Or at least misinterpreting what's she's seeing."

"Well I'd rather Tali be safe at the very least, with or without evidence," Shepard declared. "Garrus, I'm joining one of the Search Parties. If you can contact Kasumi, ask her where I can meet up with her, maybe if we put our heads together we can figure something out."

Before Garrus could even do that though, Joker's voice came over the intercom.

" _Shepard, you might want to tune into BBR, right now."_

"Joker, I don't time for a bunch of Iron Maiden songs right-"

" _It's Tali,"_ Joker stated suddenly. _"She's on the air... talking to Boz."_

Instantly Shepard's tone changed. He opened his omni-tool and tuned into Buccaneer Buzzard Radio. In and instant, he heard Tali's voice. Although it was almost unrecognizable in tone. Gone was the usual kind, cheery and bubbly personality. In its place, was desperation, fear and anger.

" _You don't fear anything, not like you should,"_ she raged. _"It's all some fun little game for you. The galaxy your pleasure palace to plunder. Your stage to perform."_

" _Well it's a, uh... a pretty neat stage,"_ Boz claimed in response.

" _More jokes, always jokes,"_ Tali snarled. _"This is why you don't understand! Or refuse to! You don't see an endlessly dark, unfeeling, empty chasm of death. A place inhabited by horror you can't imagine. That is why you are insignificant in the face of it! All of it!"_

" _Ms. Zorah, I really would love to discuss esoteric philosophy and the like, but I really feel it's important that you just give yourself up to-"_

" _You'd like that, wouldn't you?"_ Tali shouted back. _"Like everyone wants the quarians to give up and die. We're just filthy burdens to you."_

" _I don't think you're a burden,"_ Boz tried to reassure her, actually sounding sincere. _"I think you need help and I think there are plenty of people out there who want to help."_

" _Help? Please! There's no help, not against this,"_ Tali claimed. _"It's out there, they're all out there still. Just waiting in the dark, waiting for their moment. We're just... living on borrowed time. All of us, borrowed time. They're coming for us. All of us! Our only hope is to move now, while we have the chance, while they're still waiting. While they still think we're passive. Don't you understand? I'm trying to save you. All of you! This needs to happen. Sacrifices must be made. I'm sorry you can't understand. I barely do myself. The horrible truth is they are as cold and as unfeeling as space and they will consume us, all of us... unless we burn them. All of them. Every last speck left. I'll purge them before they get to us. I'll save you, even if I have to drag you to salvation, I'll save you! Whatever it takes!"_

The call abruptly ended and Boz tried to continue with the program. It was safe to say though that _Serpent_ was on high alert now, if it wasn't before.

"Why would she do that?" Jacob asked. "She's already lost the element of surprise, why let them know she's coming right now?"

"Psychological warfare," Shepard presumed. "The kig-yar might be smart, but given how quick they bought into the quest for that sword, they're superstitious too. She's trying to scare them, hinder their defenses mentally."

"Yeah, but we know she's headed to the _Serpent_ now," Garrus assured him. "We lock her in, we can stop this before it goes any further."

Shepard nodded in agreement and moved to follow Garrus.

"Miranda, you have the Deck," he ordered. "If we get any updates from Taq you inform me post haste."

"Good luck, Commander," Miranda shouted over as he left. "Bring her back to us."

She meant it too. She hoped he'd find her, before this got worse, before whatever was left of Tali was consumed by this madness taking her over. From the sound of that call, Miranda just hoped it wasn't already too late.

* * *

Retz had expected some kind of perimeter alarm to be tripped by now. Some unauthorized access from an airlock somewhere. Everything had kept silent though, not a peep. He didn't get it, why would Tali make her threat and not instantly pick up on it? She was wasting more and more time. Something didn't feel right. He kept to his plan though.

When they had found Taq and woke her back up, she had reported what Tali was after. The relic was aboard the _Serpent_ , in Taq's room. So, just head there, block it off, find the relic if possible and get off with it before Tali found it. To that end, Retz had gathered up a small squad and began to lead them to Taq's cabin. One of their newest recruits, Krez, their armory chief, Zhad, Sharpshooter Keth and chief engineering officer Kaz. He was the most important out of all of them. Tali's engineering skills would be hard to match, they needed someone with technical know how. Everyone else was there for support and armed with something special to remove Tali as a threat.

"So the Batarians use these babies on runaway slaves?" Keth asked, looking down the iron sight of the medium barrel-sized rifle in his arms.

"Small electrical shock," Zhad informed him. "Minor irritation for a second, total motor collapse in less that amount of time. Target is unharmed, but down and out."

"I'm not used to non-lethals," Keth sighed. "It's not as cool. Less head explosion."

"No killing," Retz reiterated. "Zek's orders. Tali'Zorah is not to be harmed."

"All well and good, but is she going to be as nice with us?" Keth asked. "She held the Shipmaster at gunpoint."

"It's the relic, something about it has messed with her head," Retz reminded him. "We find it, we stop this. Simple as that. Now stop complaining and follow. Taq's room isn't far."

Retz picked up the pace as they marched through the ship's corridors, carefully eyeing the shadows.

"So where would Taq keep the relic anyway?" Krez asked. "She got a secret compartment in there? A false panel? Paper book with a cutout space inside?"

"You've been watching too many vids," Retz sighed. "That's way too old school and obvious. No, Taq will have it stashed somewhere more subtle than that. I won't say more, just in case."

"In case what?" Zhad asked. "She ain't even aboard yet."

Retz really wished he hadn't said that, because right on cue and alarm sounded. Intruders, Tali had seemingly made her move.

" _Access alarm tripped! Forward bay! Move you birds! Move!"_

The warning PA from the bridge would call everyone towards the front of the ship. It would seem Tali had been a bit careless. Even with access, she had tripped the intruder alarm somehow. That seemed to be the popular opinion.

"Ha! We got her! Let's move!" Keth demanded.

Retz however grabbed him, he did not buy this for a second.

"She's not there," he told him sternly. "Taq's room! Now!"

He ran off ahead, the others following him. As they closed on an intersection, however, one of the doors in front of them shut tight. Retz nearly ran into it, Zhad did, with a huge thump. As Krez helped him up, Kaz was on the locking system.

"I don't get it," he said in a panic. "This door's lockdown function was activated independently. It thinks there's a radioactive quarantine in effect. That our engine core has ruptured or something."

"That's crazy," Keth snarled at first, but his fear soon shone through. "It... it is crazy right? We're not leaking radioactive crap all of a sudden?"

"No, Keth, it's Zorah," Retz informed him as to state the obvious. "She's already on the ship and in the security system somehow. She's closing off access to Taq's room."

"We gotta take an alternate," Kaz insisted. "She can't lockdown every door, she'd have nowhere to run herself!"

Retz agreed and knew where to go next. Heading down a series of winding corridors. He looked for a passage through, a hallway to their destination. But everywhere his head turned, a door shut tight before him. Sometimes within seconds of him glancing at it. Eventually he stopped running for a moment, holding up his fist to halt the team. That was when a door shut behind them, nearly taking off Krez's tail.

"The fuck is this?" Zhad demanded to know. "She got like fucking eyes everywhere now?"

"C-ca-can she see us?" Krez asked nervously. "Is she looking through the cameras? How is she doing this?"

"She got into the security net's main functions and used it to give herself access to control," Retz stated plainly. "She helped us set it up after all."

"Fuck! Bitch has turned our ship against us!" Keth snarled.

There was a piercing shriek from the intercom system, slicing at their ears as the feedback cut deep. As it cleared, a voice could be heard clearly through it all.

" _I have every door, camera and security measure ready and waiting. Do not test me further."_

"Tali," Retz noted. "I see she also has control over the PA."

" _Selective, I can pick which intercoms my voice transmits to. And I can hear through the camera microphones,"_ the quarian growled. _"Do not insult me. I have full control over everything in here now. I will use it if I have to."_

"Ms. Zorah, please, you've made your point," Retz tried to tell her. "Quarians are super smart and intelligent and wonderful tech wizards. You have nothing to prove to anyone. Now, if you just stand down-"

" _Shut up, Retz,"_ Tali sneered. _"I know what kind of snake you are. Kasumi learned that lesson and passed it on. Your silver tongue has no effect on me. How does that make you feel? Scared? That your best weapon, your lies, are useless here?"_

"Well, it's a bit hurtful," Retz nonchalantly admitted. "But for once I'm honestly telling you the full truth here, so..."

" _The only truth is that this galaxy didn't belong to any of you,"_ Tali declared. _"The ones who ruled it are gone, their legacy left behind is something absolutely horrifying. Their retribution is coming. They're going to take back what was theirs from beyond the reach of death. This is the only way to stop them! You're standing in the way of your own salvation. You'll see I'm right, you'll realize that I had no choice. You'll even thank me, all of you will."_

The comm cut off, leaving a very worried group of pirates.

"If this is her way of helping I'd hate to find out what she does to people she's trying to destroy," Keth stated.

"We are not getting beat by some lousy tech head on our own tub," Zhad declared, before looking over to Kaz and adding; "Uh, no offense."

"None taken, let us just try and focus on getting to the relic first," Kaz replied, pulling up his omni-tool. "We need to stay away from doors, maybe I can try and shut her out through maintenance. I can set some of the doors to low emergency power mode. They won't shut, at least not before a reboot. It should give us some time to get through, not much, but enough."

"Do it, we have got to get that relic first," Retz ordered.

They made their move, Kaz at the front his omni-tool and at the ready. They'd have to take a longer way around to get to Taq's room, but at least they'd get there. Kaz kept switching the low power function to every door they might encounter, hoping it would be enough to keep Tali's lockdown plan from working. For the first door at least it did work, they were able to get through as it slowly lurched shut.

Then the music started blaring over the intercom, now tuned to BBR, which was right in the middle of another Iron Maiden song.

 _ **There will be a catastrophe the like we've never seen**_

 _ **There will be something that will light the sky**_

 _ **That the world as we know it, it will never be the same**_

 _ **Did you know, did you know?**_

"Boz keeps rolling out the hits, doesn't he?" Keth grumbled. "Seriously, this is not helping after that creepy street preacher shit."

"What I wouldn't give for one of Juk's stupid insane theories right now to calm me down," Krez spoke up.

"Don't say that, please," Zhad requested. "That is the last thing we need right now."

The song kept playing, but Retz did his best ignore it. Although he did like Maiden's amazing story telling abilities, he had a job to do. He was not about to fail Zek or Taq, he'd stop Tali from making herself worse and prevent this insanity from taking them all down with the quarian. All the while the damn song kept playing eerily.

 _ **They tell us nothing that we don't already know about**_

 _ **They tell us nothing that is real at all**_

 _ **They only fill us with the stuff that they want**_

 _ **Did you know, did you know?**_

"Okay, just up here," Kaz said, ignoring the lyrics. "We should have a clean shot to the-"

There was a strange, random, sizzling sound to the left. Kaz jumped back, spreading out his arms to force the others to step backwards too. A burst of energy exploded from a wall conduit suddenly, sparks of lightning and energy burst around the width of the corridor in front of them, zapping anything that got too close.

"Holy shit, what was that?" Krez asked frantically.

"She picked up on my idea," Kaz reasoned, just as shocked. "She siphoned the power I pulled away from the doors and shuffled it into a wall conduit to overload it. Damn, she's good."

"Which is why she is dangerous," Retz reminded him. "Shut it down, we need to get through."

Kaz got to work, trying to shut the conduit down remotely. Retz could see him typing away furiously at the commands, but an error message kept popping up suddenly. Kaz maintained his cool, but his frustration was clear regardless.

"I don't know what she did, but I can't get the commands to execute," he grumbled. "I'll try going through them individually. Should take me a minute."

But as Kaz got started, they all heard a sound from behind them. Some kind of whirring electronic sound, peering from behind a corner was a strange purple ball of light, rolling around the ground. It was a combat drone, and Retz knew who it belonged to.

"Damn, it's Tali's Drone," he warned the others. "Cheeky vos paws something or other, do not let it get near us!"

A blast of electro shock energy nearly zapped Zhad, who quickly ducked into cover. The others followed suit, finding whatever they could partially hide behind nearby, mostly alcoves within the hallway.

"The fuck, what about that shit she went on about saving us!?" Zhad complained.

"The shocks are low power, designed to knock us out," Retz explained, checking his omni-tool. "She wants to stall us, not kill us."

"Whatever," Keth spat. "At least no one cares if I kill this fucking thing!"

The sharpshooter fired three clean blasts at the drone. Each found their mark, and electrical shock bolt easily ripped apart the drone's defenses. As it dissipated, there was a sigh of relief. One that did not last long, as the whirring sound soon returned.

Another Drone, faster than before, charging at them as it sparked energy everywhere. They unloaded shocks into it, but it seemed more resistant to the blasts this time. Some kind of armored coating, built into the roving energy ball, protected its stability.

"Shut the damn conduit off!" Zhad demanded as he kept shooting.

"I'm almost... there!"

Kaz's words predicated the energy arcs vanishing and Retz ordering everyone through. They rushed ahead, even as the drone kept after them. Retz kept shooting into it as they raced ahead, the drone eventually pulling back.

"Where did the second one come from?" Krez asked. "How'd it show up so fast?"

"I'm not sure," Retz admitted. "I was under the impression Tali's omni-tool could only control one Combat Drone at a time and required a cooldown effect before it could be recompiled. Something must have changed."

"Yeah, she went nuts," Keth stated bluntly. "Now she's turned our fucking ship into a haunted house!"

"I thought we were done with ghost ships!" Kaz cried.

"It's not a ghost, it's just Tali!" Retz reminded them all. "Get a grip on yourselves! You're kig-yar! Space pirates! You fear nothing but a lack of ichor and riches!"

"I can also fear a creepy drone that wants to zap my ass," Zhad informed him. "Where the shit is Taq's room already?"

"We're close!" Retz insisted. "Alright? We're close. Now would you all stop panicking?"

He wished he had better timing on that phrase, considering the lights switched almost within seconds of him saying that. Not exactly the most encouraging words to say mere seconds after you ask everyone to stop panicking. Thankfully, no one screamed, although Keth did snarl in annoyance.

"Come on! Give us a fucking break, lady!"

"Relax," Kaz told the sharpshooter. "Even she can't kill emergency power, it should come on right about...now."

True to Kaz's word, the red emergency lights activated for their section. While everything was bathed in a crimson menacing glow, at least they could see. Retz knew though that enough time had passed for Tali to pull whatever her intent had been within the darkness. Worse though, was that the quarian was not done intimidating them either. Her voice appeared once more over the intercom.

" _This is not going the way you want it to. Back off. Now! You will regret it."_

The tone was cold and vicious, even Keth seemed a bit concerned by the threat. Retz, however, was not phased by the demand, and neither was Zhad for that matter.

"Ocean's sake, she's not a fucking God, guys!" He declared.

" _As long as I'm in your systems I might as well be,"_ Tali's voice snapped back at them.

"Oh yeah, that sounds perfectly sane and level-headed," Keth grumbled. "You really do need help."

" _Help is relative,"_ Tali claimed. _"You're the ones in my way after all."_

It was then Krez jumped, pointing his weapon down a corridor. Retz turned to it himself, and saw what the recruit had seen. A shadow, darting in the crimson light up ahead.

"I see her! That way!"

Krez ran off before Retz could caution him, but he ran close behind him anyway. The others followed suit, rushing through the darkened corridors and low-level red light. Retz could see the shadow of Tali racing just ahead of them, keeping out of reach. He couldn't help but feel something was off, something was wrong. It was hard to tell in the dark, but Tali seemed to weave in and out focus every few feet. It was a jarring, weird.

He kept going after her though, even when it looked like Tali was firing back at him. Shooting off a blast from her shotgun backwards before continuing to run. Eventually, the quarian rounded a corner, seemingly stopping her run. Krez was still moving though rushed to catch up. The second he spotted Tali crouching just feet in front of him, he fired his shock rifle and hit her dead center. But instead of dropping to the floor in pain from the debilitating electrical burst, Tali just dissipated. She vanished, like a ghost.

The reality was far worse though.

"Hologram," Retz growled. "Damn it, we've been had."

"She must've grabbed one of them packs from the humans' armory or something," Zhad suggested. "Then rigged it up to run at long range. The darkness was to make it harder to see through the damn ruse."

"Why though?" Krez asked. "Just to lead us on a little chase?"

Retz's eyes widened with the realization.

"No, to lead us away from her!" He told them all.

Without another word he retraced their steps, rushing towards Taq's room. They had been led far enough away from it that it took a bit to get back to it. When they finally got to the door, Retz could tell it had been forced open and then forcibly shut. Retz forced an arm through the crack in the door and wedged himself inside. All the while, he could hear the Iron Maiden song still playing.

 _ **Can't believe all the lying,**_

 _ **All the screens are denying**_

 _ **That the moments of truth have begun**_

Inside Taq's room was a mess of overturned furniture, books pulled from shelves, computers broken into and floors and walls torn up. Tali had been here, and she was clearly long gone too. All that was left was a hacked hologram decoy rig. Tali probably set it up so she could remotely control the decoy's actions from her position while she searched. For someone out of her mind, she was still as mechanically focused as ever. When the others in the search team arrived, Krez trying to maintain some level of optimism.

"Maybe she didn't find it?" He suggested.

Retz scanned the room, spotting something out of place. A broken open case of ichor. Except, there was no ichor inside. There wasn't a single bottle. He remembered, Zek had sent a crate up to the room, told everyone it was off limits, that it was reserved for Taq and her alone. No one would dare defy that order for some extra ichor, not when they had plenty. But there were no bottles, probably because Taq had given them away or dumped them out. Because why would she keep a gift from Zek... unless she intended to use it for something else. And why would anyone dare peek into an ichor crate that the shipmaster stated was off limits and wasn't worth the risk when you had plenty of other options? A perfect, unsuspecting hiding place, unless you knew what you were looking for.

"She has it," Retz assured the team. "We were too late."

"Not by much though," Keth claimed.

Retz turned and saw the sharpshooter force a small chair a way from the wall, revealing a missing panel. She was in their maintenance shafts now.

"Damn it, she's going to try and work back to her entry point," Retz snarled. "Kaz, try and see if you can override her access! Shut the damn vents closed or something! Trap her in there! She cannot leave!"

Kaz set to work, but Retz knew it was a temporary solution. Tali was determined to "save" them all. She wasn't going to let something as simple as some closed off vents stop her. They had to be ready for her next move.

* * *

Tali settled into her nook within the shaft. She couldn't stay here for long, she needed to work on getting out of here. She couldn't finish her mission in here, the _Fallen Serpent_ would not suit her needs. She needed to get back to the carrier and fast. First things first though, she had to get a better look at her prize.

Pulling it from the small bag she now had strapped over her shoulder, Tali got a better look at the relic. She couldn't get the weird uplink device attached to the base off of it, but she didn't need to. She turned the relic in her hands as she eyed the glowing object. It seemed to be even more active now then when she had first found it in the crate. She could feel the energy pooling in her fingertips, the sensation almost intoxicating.

She knew this thing was dangerous, but she needed it. She needed it to save everyone. Already her mind was filled with thoughts flowing freely into it. Tali had to fight to make sense of any of it, to keep the voice within from using this data flood to its advantage. She would not fall prey to it, she would beat it. She had to. All she needed was more information, enough to get them to the origin and kill the source, kill the evil. It was her only means of ending the Precursors and wiping their vile perverted legacy from this galaxy.

She could already see the information circulating in her mind, she just needed to focus in on it. To translate it. Luckily, she had a means to do that.

"DOT, I want you to translate whatever information this thing is beaming out," she ordered. "See if you can find coordinates, a point of origin, anything."

"As you wish, Tali'Zorah," DOT concurred.

Tali now tried to focus on her escape, knowing DOT would keep the investigation going for now. She knew Retz would not be letting her leave as easily as she came aboard. Her trick using DOT to boost Chatika's adaptational software and rapidly decrease the reconfiguration period. But she could not produce more. She needed another method. She also needed a faster way our of this stupid ship. She knew the vents wouldn't work, Retz no doubt had overridden her access encoding. She needed a fresh way off. Luckily, the idea came to her pretty quickly, her mind settling on a course of action. It would be risky, but it was her best chance at getting back to the carrier.

* * *

Taq adjusted the cold compress on her head and grunted.

"I suppose I should be happy it won't scar," she grumbled. "Thank evolution for thick plated skull caps."

"Need to lie down?" The Master Chief asked.

"I've worked with Zek before, he's a worse headache than anything anyone could give me," she assured him as she pulled up more feeds on her terminal. "Your concern is appreciated, but I have a mystery to crack."

After Taq had seen a medic, she insisted being moved to a secure place so she could get back to work. The Master Chief accompanied her, on Cortana's insistence. On the surface it was to deter Tali returning to beat more info out of the kig-yar. In reality, the AI wanted to compare notes with the tomb raiding Jackal and see if they could crack the relic's purpose together. Tali's sanity, and perhaps life, depended on it.

Cortana appeared on the holopad setup next to the terminal, her own series of screens and diagrams at the ready. She had a grim look on her, telling everyone she did not like what she had found.

"Everything I'm looking at suggests Tali is right," she explained. "Nothing in this relic matches Forerunner classification. Language software, data structure, runtime compilations, nothing. It's all completely foreign. Nothing I've cross referenced from Halo's own systems lines up in any characteristic way."

"Maybe it's just super old and outdated," Chief suggested.

"I have records of several older than dirt Forerunner installations on catalog for reference," Taq claimed. "None of it matches linguistically. This relic, it predates the accepted Forerunner Imperial timeframe. As in, it's from before they really gained any semblance of interstellar power. How they would have tech this advanced without achieving space travel is beyond me. Sure, there might be some other explanations to all this, but right now it's looking like this isn't Forerunner."

Chief could hardly believe it, the idea that the big alien Gods of the Covenant, the whole reason humanity was getting exterminated, the race that built Halo of all things, were themselves not nearly so powerful. Someone out there, before them, was bigger and badder. Of course, the Forerunners somehow replaced them, so perhaps that said something about humanity's ability to survive the Covenant.

While an interesting thought though, if not a hopeful one, it didn't exactly help Tali. Knowing this thing wasn't Forerunner certainly lent some credence to what the visions in her head claimed, but not much else.

"Can you still decipher what it does?" Chief asked.

"A little, we're cross referencing several translating programs just to get a general idea," Taq explained. "It's not easy."

"Far as we can tell the primary function is it works as some kind of amplification device," Cortana explained. "Somehow it is able to boost the various functions of any system, increasing its power exponentially. Like a pick me up or a steroid for machines. If you know how to work it and how to program it, you can have it enhance the various systems of any electronic device. Probably why the Forerunners on the _Dauntless_ used it like they did."

"We already suspected that though," Chief recalled.

"Yes, but the relic does possess its own power source, which is itself amplified by the relic," Taq continued, looking equally as troubled as Cortana. "That's what the Forerunners were tapping into. However, according to Cortana's research, they were having trouble bypassing another system, one that prevented them from using the relic to its full potential."

"What second system?" Chief asked confused.

"I'm not sure," Cortana admitted. "We've yet to obtain access. All we know is that somehow the _Dauntless_ crew managed to shut it off. Or at least force it into sleep mode. They disabled that function completely in an effort to unlock the amplification and power functions. That energy surge that hit Tali? It seems like that was the relic rebooting."

"When we shut the machines plugged into the thing down, that triggered a system restart," Taq explained. "When Tali touched it, the whole thing went into overdrive suddenly."

Chief could only guess why that happened.

"Because of the psychic scarring the spores left on her?" He asked.

"Maybe, who's to say it wouldn't have done that regardless of who touched it," Cortana shrugged, unsure of the answer herself. "What I can say is that when she was hit by the surge, the relic might have detected the psychic scarring and it might have started that transmission thing up."

Taq brought up said transmission, still beaming in from her uplink attached to the relic.

"Constant fluctuation, solid signal," she declared. "It is still squawking like a bitchy teenage bird who wants a new shiny thing from the store. I can only imagine it's talking right to Tali. What I can't figure out is what it is transmitting, how it is transmitting and what is even talking to her in the first place!"

As Taq explained things, Chief noticed the signal on the screen behind her growing more erratic and pulsating. He merely lifted a finger to point that out to the Jackal, who turned and looked horrified.

"Oh no," Taq said in a low tone, before rushing to pull up more screens alongside the transmission. She read off one of them specifically. "Direct Receiver Contact. All functions active. Internal storage to external in process? The fuck is this?"

"What's happening?" Chief asked concerned.

"Tali has the Relic," Taq explained frantically. "At least I think she does. She's... she's touching the damn thing and now whatever the shit is talking to her is increasing its transmission rate. It's feeding her things, information, something from somewhere. The second function is fully activated now!"

"The joke is on the relic," Cortana claimed, already going to work as she accessed the uplink. "It might be transmitting thoughts directly into Tali's head, but with Taq's uplink we can sneak a peek at the origin point. Just a little more and... there! We just snuck right in through the front door!"

She beamed the information to Taq's terminal. After a few solid seconds of reading in silence, the Jackal's eyes widened in revelation.

"Holy shit," she squawked. "That's what it meant by memory! Fucking hell, we gotta get this to Shepard, fast!"

"Why?" Chief pressed. "What did you find?"

Taq looked to the Spartan with a seriously grave expression, her eyes glaring at him in in a mixture of shock and defiance.

"We just figured out who the hell is talking to her!"

* * *

The Radio was screeching "Can I Play with Madness?" as Retz and his team searched the area. They smashed into every vent covering they could find, trying to locate the quarian before she did more damage to herself. No matter how hard they looked for her though, nothing seemed to show up on thermals or movement sensors, she was like a ghost. Not Retz was about to say that aloud. He wasn't going to give these birds more ammunition to shoot themselves with.

"She has to be around here somewhere," Zhad insisted. "There's no way she could get that far away from us."

"Zorah has been working in ships all her life," Retz informed him. "I find it fairly easy to believe she knows her way around some maintenance shafts."

The light kept flickering around them, along with some doors constantly opening and closing at will. At this point it was just annoying, not intentionally disruptive. Retz presumed that this meant Tali had her haunted house protocol running on random. It was meant to confuse them more than anything.

When a bolt of arcing energy nearly side-swiped him though, he realized that not all of Tali's tricks were so harmless. Her drone was back and it looked as frantic and frayed as poor Tali's own mind. It even seemed to growl at them in electronic static.

"Not this fucking thing again!" Krez groaned in both fear and anger.

"I got it!" Keth assured. "Eat shit synth!"

He fired a few shots at the drone, but it just took the hits. Then it fired back with an energy blast that assaulted Keth's shock rifle. The weapon seemed to sputter and spark suddenly as well as heat up. Keth dropped it, shouting in pain as he trigger fingers smoked. Retz quickly realized the true danger and kicked the gun towards the drone. Moments later an electrical backlash erupted from the weapon and consumed the freakish energy ball, de-constructing it almost instantly. Retz's team were more or less stunned by the scene.

"She programmed it to sabotage our weapons," Kaz observed. "That's... pretty cunning of her."

"This is fucking bullshit, man!" Keth claimed in anger. "She keeps fucking with us!"

At that moment the song on the radio hit the instrumental section, but they were unable to listen to guitar riffs for long. The music faded somewhat, and was replaced with Boz's panicked speech alongside a very angry female voice.

" _For the love of the ocean lady! Stop pointing the gun at me!"_

" _I have the boomstick, you do what I say! Isn't that how you pirates work?"_

" _I'm a Pirate DJ! There's a difference! I just want to do my show damn it! I'm not built for this kind of pressure!"_

She was with Boz. She was in the same room with Boz, BBR Central. Why would she be there? And then Retz realized why.

"Shit no! Boz, do not let her touch anything!"

Retz rushed off in the direction of BBR's broadcasting, his posse following close behind. He kept listening to the conversation as he ran.

" _How do I boost it?"_

" _I keep telling you! This is as high as it goes!"_

" _Tell me where the system is!"_

" _This is not fair! I just wanted to listen to Maiden and get buzzed as fuck with my Ichor Rum! This was supposed to be a fun day! It was supposed to be fun!"_

" _Do you ever just shut- wait... why can I hear an echo?"_

" _Echo? What echo? There's no echo!"_

" _You bosh'tet! What did you hit!?"_

" _I swear! I never even looked at any buttons!"_

" _WHAT DID YOU HIT?!"_

" _AAAAAAAAHHHH!"_

Then there was a shot and the music switched back to full blast. Retz double timed it station, rushing through the low level red light. He finally got to Boz's room as the next Maiden song started to play automatically. He found the door open, a busted light in the ceiling, a blown off panel from the ventilation system next to it and a cowering Boz shaking in the corner.

"I tried to stop her," he whimpered. "She got the fucking look of death in her eyes, man!"

"What did she do?" Retz asked, kneeling down to to the frightened kig-yar.

"She shoved some green looking thing into the panel," he explained frantically. "Then she typed a few fucking commands, pulled it back out and took off that way! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just... she would've killed me if I did anything. man!"

"Boz, relax, you did good hitting that microphone on," Retz explained. "She's just not her self, but I don't think she wanted to kill you. She would've shot you and not the light otherwise."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe," Boz admitted, slightly calming down.

"Just sit tight," Retz insisted. "You're going to be okay. Make sure everyone knows, you're okay. I need to get after her."

Boz just nodded in compliance and Retz rushed off again. He already suspected what Tali had done. Rumor was the relic could amplify things. Like a booster signal on a radio setup. A setup that someone like Tali could use to override certain lockdown functions, specifically on an airlock.

He made it to the nearest airlock port after a minute or so of frantic non-stop running. When he reached it, the door was already closing. He ran to shove his gun in through the crack, but the door shut tight before he could. He pounded on the airlock angrily before finally just shouting through the metal.

"Tali, this is insane!" He screamed. "You're fighting people who are your allies so you can kill an invisible enemy! Do you understand how crazy that is?"

The intercom answered Retz thusly.

" _I have looked into the mind of something truly evil, something that wishes our doom to satiate revenge long since achieved,"_ Tali's voice declared, sounding distant, displaced and fearful. _"If I am mad, if it is too late for me, so be it. I know the darkness, it is in me. I can see it, I know what it is doing. If I must sacrifice my mind to stop it... then I will."_

Airlock warning light turned on and Retz could hear the rush of air escaping. A few seconds later, the all clear sign turned on and the airlock opened. Tali was gone, but not entirely of course. She was just outside, walking along the _Serpent_ back to the Carrier. Quarian envirosuits had their own oxygen reserve and could double as space suits. That way, they didn't need to get out of one and into another in case of emergencies.

Retz contacted Zek with the bad news. Tali was out, she had the relic and she was coming back aboard the _Justice_. And whatever her next step was, she was going through with it. Regardless of any cost to herself. After all, she had to save them, didn't she?

* * *

AN: This took me a bit longer to get out because I had problems writing the third chapter to this one. Yeah, we've gone to a three parter. It was the only way to make sure everyone got enough time to breathe. If this upsets you, sorry. But rest assured, Reach is probably going to end up being just as long given everything that happens there so hey, you're going to get a lot of Reach when we get there... which is soon.

I do hope you don't mind my Iron Maiden obsession here. I hope picking less radio played songs makes this easier on you all. I'd leave links to youtube for you to listen along to scenes, but doesn't work that way. At all. I just hope they added to the experience... and will get you to check out their discography yourselves. In the meantime, look to my profile page for some new stuff, including some behind the scenes stuff and the like. I think there might be a new Hellfox audio too, but if not, hey, do check out the ones there anyway if you haven't already because they're awesome. And do visit the tropes page if you have a chance. Always good to see that updated when it is.

Thanks again for reading and I hope the wait for the conclusion to this arc won't be nearly as long. As soon as the first Reach Chapter is done it will drop, I can promise that much. See you then!


	16. Dead Memories

**Chapter 15: Dead Memories**

 _Wise men have interpreted dreams, and the Gods have Laughed_

 _-H.P. Lovecraft_

The dark silence of space surrounded Tali now, the inky black reaching out for countless lightyears. Within it, somewhere, she knew her true enemy lay in wait. It was expecting her to fail, but she would not let it. As she plodded along the outer hull of the _Fallen Serpent_ , Iron Maiden's _"Starblind"_ played in her helmet. Boz had made a short announcement a few minutes ago, assuring everyone he was fine and intending to continue the broadcast. He even threw in a meek little message to her personally. It was just three words, "I forgive you." She clutched at her heart from that, but pressed on all the same.

Boz wasn't the only Jackal on her mind. Retz's words had burrowed in deep and they refused to leave. Because in a sense, she knew he was right. She was acting crazy. This was crazy. She had attacked Boz and several other kig-yar out of a blind rage. She was grateful in the end she hadn't killed anyone, but part of her feared how close she came. She had watched Boz quiver in fear and anguish, he sounded so fearful, yet she blocked it all out. She kept threatening him and she honestly wasn't sure anymore how legitimate those threats were.

She feared the influence of the voice now more than ever. She knew its claws were in her mind, stabbing deep. She could feel the pain even now. Tali hoped these close calls were more its doing than hers, but she wasn't so sure now. Or, if it was the Voice's influence, how long she'd be able to fight him if it was driving her to nearly murdering people in fits of anger?

Despite these doubts, she had to press on, she had to save everyone. Her magnetic boots were keep her lashed to the hull for now. All she needed to do was keep walking. She'd find her entry onto the carrier soon enough. This would be a long spacewalk, but she'd get where she needed to go at least with little interruption.

She crested the edge of the vessel once more, the sound of the music her only constant companion beyond her thoughts. As she looked to the dark void once more, she thought again of the voice. The creature speaking to her and the relic it was using to do so. Tali's eyes wandered towards her omni-tool.

"DOT, what's the status of your analysis so far?" She asked.

"The encryption is difficult to bypass, but we have located a number of relevant datapoints," the AI explained. "We shall continue compiling for future reference."

Tali just sighed, nothing to be done until the AI was finished. She looked back up from the omni-tool, hoping to see space again and feel some kind of calming effect among the stars. Instead, she found another shadow. She stopped in her tracks instantly pulling her weapons. The inky black around the figure, the visage of the voice, it had never been so clear before. It was a putrid thing, with many arms and a wretched nightmarish neck that seemed to stretch and fold as it peered around. Tentacles of a sort lashed out from the back and its bottom half was almost serpent-like itself. Tali kept her gun trained on the shadow, despite knowing it wasn't really there.

"Go. Away." She demanded.

" **I grow stronger with every passing moment,"** the creature claimed. **"My influence rises. You shall soon be broken and then you will realize the truth."**

"I know enough of the truth," Tali informed it angrily. "Stop feeding me yours. You turned yourselves into monsters, that's all that matters."

" **We transcended, we became more,"** the shadow stated. **"And you could be more too. This is our gift, one we grant to you."**

"Save it," Tali snapped in return. "I don't want it. I will not become your puppet."

" **You still deny our resemblance to one another,"** the creature declared. **"For we are so alike. You have done what we have. I see your mind, lost child. I see your memories. Your dreams."**

Tali placed her fingers on the trigger of her gun. It would do no good, but it helped to feel like she had some semblance of power.

"We are nothing like you," she scowled.

" **You know the fruits of creation,"** the shadow claimed. **"Of the ability to birth life. Your only mistake was similar to ours. You let that life gain control of itself, you waited too long to snuff it when it became rebellious. And in the end, it destroyed your people, leaving you adrift."**

"What happened between my people and the Geth wasn't the same thing," Tali shouted in anger. "We didn't turn ourselves into a damn plague out of petty revenge."

" **Petty?"** the shadow laughed. **"You call what we once were petty? How can you still understand so little after all that was shown to you?"**

"Because I don't care," Tali responded vehemently. "Because I'm going to kill you, that's why."

The shadowy monster simply waved one of its wretched arms to the stars. Tali couldn't help but follow and saw within the void now was a planet. One that hadn't been there before. It was barren for a brief time, and then began to blossom, grow green, lush with beauty.

" **We built worlds, seeded life within countless systems throughout the galaxy,"** the shadow claimed. **"Our power was unmatched, our creations divine. Our art was unparalleled by all. We could create or..."**

The creature's fist suddenly closed and the planet withered and died just as quickly as it had come alive. Seas dried up, plants died and then the very earth cracked until the sphere ripped itself apart. The illusion was near blinding, but Tali refused to be taken in by the display.

"The galaxy isn't your plaything anymore," she told it. "The Forerunners saw to that."

" **You think their rebellion righteous?"** The monster screeched. **"It was no different than your Geth. They betrayed our plans, betrayed our vision. We gave them life and they responded as ungrateful children, spoiled and rotten, belligerent and wicked."**

"Can't say I blame them," Tali snarled in return. "Not when their parents were such total bosh'tets."

The shadow rose angrily and Tali's headache flared up. She kept the pistol up, pointing at the creature, refusing to yield.

" **Your mind is fracturing,"** it claimed. **"It is but nothing before us. You condemn us for how we used our gifts, but how are we so different? Your people created life, they created beings to carry out their vision. The Geth rejected you, they resented you for being their masters and they turned against you. An entire galaxy condemned you for this. Why can you not see that we are the same? That we can offer you true glory, final victory. Resisting will only lead to ruin, of yourself and all you care about."**

"Because unlike you, I know now what we did was wrong," Tali screamed in rage. "You cannot create life and then just treat it like a toy! You cannot take such a responsibility and abuse it! That's what my ancestors did with the Geth and I will not allow my people to keep making the same mistakes! Because now I see, more than ever, what that leads to. It leads to you, to what you've become."

The shadow settled itself suddenly, but began to advance on Tali. The quarian held her ground, her weapon pointing right at its head. Or at least what she assumed was its head.

" **Your words say one thing, but your rage is more truthful,"** it spoke. **"Your actions have shown your true colors. Your anger, your hatred, it all burns ever more brightly. It is delicious."**

She placed her weapon at point blank range into the creature's forehead.

"I. Am going. To kill you."

" **Death is beyond us now. We have surpassed it."** the shadow cackled. **"We belong to the infinite. We are part of it. Everlasting peace is at hand. For you. For all of you. Soon, once you have fallen, you shall see how high you can truly rise. Death is but the doorway. We shall guide all to the true serenity beyond."**

Tali shut her eyes and pulled the trigger. There was a single shot. When she let herself see again, there was nothing. The shadow was gone, the voice was gone. No, that wasn't right, it was still here, it was just quiet again. This couldn't be stopped with a bullet to an imaginary monster's head. She needed to find the source. She needed to stop it there.

She wouldn't have to go much further if she kept on her targeted route. She was already coming up to the maintenance airlock that would get her back inside the _Ascendant Justice_. That would probably be the last really easy part of any of this. If she had managed to keep her escape hidden longer, like she had originally planned, maybe circumstances would've been different. By now though, everyone in the fleet would be on high alert. Getting to engine core would be a trial in and of itself.

Overriding the safety locks, Tali scrambled inside airlock proper. She prepared the cycling sequence and and air rushed inside. She relaxed herself somewhat as the doors to the airlock opened and there was no sign of anyone waiting for her. Good, she hadn't picked an obvious entry point. She had some time to get to somewhere more secure and plan her next move. Lucky her, these Covenant Carriers were so big that even with as many soldiers and Marines aboard it as there were, they still basically made up a skeleton crew.

She began to head off along her designated path, as it would take her closer to the engine core. Then, she stopped, as she felt something behind her. Another illusion? More of the voice? Tali spun around expecting the shadowy Precursor to be back. She saw nothing instead. Her eyes scanned the area as she sifted through her visor's various optical sensory displays. Perhaps she had missed something. Perhaps- There! Something on her electronics scanner! Moving but unseen! She pulled up her omni-tool and fired a low level overload at the target.

Appearing before her, energy arching over its body and forced to the ground on its back, was Legion. It had been using a cloaking field from the UNSC Armory. Shocked and appalled at what she had done, Tali rushed over to the geth and moved to help it, but briefly hesitated. Legion could only be here for one reason after all.

"I'm sorry," she told the Geth. "I- I didn't want to... I was scared and I... I thought you were one of the Spartans or something, I...!"

Legion rolled onto into a kneeling position and tried to stand.

"Creator Tali'Zorah, you are unwell," it tried to say, it's various body components fluctuating as it spoke.

"Believe me, I know," Tali told it succinctly. "I'm trying to use it. How did you even guess I'd be here?"

"Calculation on odds simple," Legion said. "You would not use nearest entrance in order to return, nor would you use furthest or enter through hangar. You would use intermediate distanced airlock close to hangar bay. More ground for search parties to cover, too many possible entries to feasibly discern."

"But not for a Geth," Tali sighed. "I suppose I should've figured if anyone could find me it would be you."

Legion's motor functions eventually returned and it stood back up, although the shock from the overload had taken its toll. It had not tried to restrain her for one, right now Legion was just trying to talk her down. It was the only means open to it. Evidenced by the fact it kept trying to negotiate with her.

"Creator Tali'Zorah, your actions are not conducive to unit cohesion," it claimed. "You have placed yourself and others at considerable risk."

"I know it looks that way, but I'm trying to save us, Legion," Tali informed it. "Save all of us."

"The Precursor threat is imaginary," Legion claimed. "While evidence discovered so far suggests they were real, the data you are using to pursue them is corrupted. The relic is the true source of your current affliction."

So he had been fully briefed, or at least updated. Tali wondered momentarily if that was a cause for relief, that the others had realized she was right. That the Precursors were real, that they became the Flood, that more were still out there waiting to strike and only by striking now did they have a chance to stop them. Legion's words told a different story though.

"The Relic is my only chance at stopping them," Tali exclaimed. "With the information it's feeding me I can find-"

"The information is corrupted," Legion insisted. "You cannot trust it. The illogical actions it has driven you towards are evidence enough of that."

"I know it's dangerous, Legion," Tali assured the Geth. " It did this to me, but it's my only hope at fixing me as well. My only chance at killing the voice."

"That logic does not follow," Legion declared. "The relic's influx of information caused you to see visions. Inputing more will not cause them to cease."

"If it leads me to where the voice is coming from-"

"It is coming from the Relic," Legion stated. "That much is clear. Creator Tali'Zorah, you must see this. Your intelligence is greater than this. You are damaging yourself. We cannot allow it to continue."

Legion extended its arm and held out its palm.

"Surrender the relic," it asked, allowing its headplates to become more relaxed. "We will return to Shepard Commander. We can assist you."

Tali looked at Legion, staring at her with earnest willingness to help. She could see that clearly, even if her mind was fogged with nightmares. Legion, the one Geth she could confidently call a friend, at the very least a companion. The Geth whose existence held the greatest hope for her people for reconciliation. For peace with the synthetics their ancestors created.

She reached for the relic, pulling it from the container she held it in. She moved to hand it to Legion. The Geth stretched out, intent on taking it. Only for Tali to raise her omni-tool again and fire an overload charge into the synth. The blast was low yield, enough to disable only, but Legion still sputtered about as the energy surged through its platform. Tali rushed to grab the Geth.

"I'm sorry, Legion," she cried, tears welling up as she grasped at its head. "I can't take the risk. I've come too far to give up now!"

She grappled at a port near Legion's head and plugged her omni-tool into it directly. Legion eventually stopped stumbling around and returned to a placid state. She had blocked out the programs controlling it, forcefully sending them into a standby mode. Similar to when she had been doing diagnostics on Legion's systems before, just without permission this time. The platform was under her direct control now, Legion would sleep comfortably for now, Ancestors willing.

"I'm sorry," Tali said, allowing the tears to finally flow. "I'm so sorry, Legion. You... you can hate me for this later. I... I just need help. I need your help to save us all. Even you. I... I didn't want this. I just... I don't know what else to do."

It was only now she wondered, how many friends would she have left when this was done? How many people would trust her again? Even if she won, if she killed the voice, would anyone care that she had saved them? Or would they all just see her as the quarian who attacked them, turned on them, who went insane in her attempts to save them? Who violated so much of them, even if it was for their well-being? Then again, hadn't she done that before? What was the point of feeling guilty over it now? What was the point of saving a world when you knew it wouldn't want you anymore regardless?

As despair washed over her, a warm hand rested on her shoulder.

"My daughter, do not fear," her mother said. "For I am with you. You are the greatest hope for our people. For them to know peace between organic and machine. Legion will forgive you. They all will forgive when they see why you did what had to be done. You will defeat pain and suffering itself, my daughter. You will bring peace."

"Yes," Tali said distantly. "It will all be... it will be worth it when they see. I'll kill the voice. I'll... I'll stop him. I'll save them."

"Go, Tali," her mother beckoned as she left again. "There is still time. Salvation awaits."

Tali had Legion's body follow her. She needed to get to a secure place. It was the only chance she had now. There would be too many Marines, too many Soldiers, too many Batarians in her way otherwise. Maybe a few Jackals, but she doubted they'd be there in force. Either way, she needed to distract them. Legion was her only chance at accomplishing that now.

* * *

As he stood in his cabin, weary and frustrated at everything, Shepard rubbed his temple, trying to process everything Taq and Cortana were trying to say, At the very least, even Chief seemed confused by it all. A small comfort, but at least he didn't feel completely alone in his bewilderment.

"Let me get this straight," he tried to suss out. "An AI is in the relic and it is talking to Tali?"

"It's not an AI," Taq informed him bluntly. "How many times do I have to go over this? It's a memory, an electronically induced memory of someone. Similar to an AI Matrix, but not. It's not synthetic life, it's some kind of psychic mental residue transfered into data and code and other kinds of computer shit."

"I really don't see the difference," Shepard told her firmly. "Aren't AI based on digitized brainwaves of people who were once alive?"

"Normally, but this is different," Cortana stated, bringing up the relevant data on the Master Chief's Omni-Tool. "We're dealing with the digitized form of the thought patterns of something beyond anything we've ever encountered. We're talking an organic being capable of transferring its own mental energies into code and data. It's the living memory of someone processed into the relic, every single solitary experience of that subject's life downloaded into it."

"Said relic is used to amplify technology," Taq continued. "So, what happens when you transfer memories and thoughts that were digitzed into it? Simple, you create a conduit for which those memories and thoughts can be transfered under the right circumstances. You create a record of yourself that can, for all intents and purposes, communicate with others and feed them your life story."

This did not sound at all like technology. This sounded like voodoo magic more than anything. Shepard could hardly believe it, even though Taq and Cortana seemed so sure of it themselves. Besides, was it really so different from what happened with him and the Beacon on Eden Prime? Not really, that was a message encoded into his head. All it did though was warn him of an incoming threat. It never tried to direct his actions, there was no intelligence behind it. He couldn't deny the similarities were there though and it made him feel all the more guilty for not taking Tali's word at more face value than he did.

The weirdness of this theory aside, the most important thing to him was still unclear.

"What does any of this have to do with Tali?" He asked. "How can she hear this memory but not us?"

"Because we're not meant to," Cortana informed him. "We don't meet the parameters. This thing has a very specific mental frequency. It latched onto it through Tali because she met the parameters. She had the one thing in that room on the bridge during that power surge that was unique to her alone."

Shepard realized what they were talking about almost instantly.

"She had been infected with those spores," he reasoned, the shock permeating his face. "Mordin electro-shocked them, but they left something behind. The psychic scarring, her mental defense to the Flood, it gave it a way to get inside."

"Exactly," Cortana confirmed. "Whatever Tali experienced in the swamp left an imprint on her. One that could warn her, it seems, of a specific Flood Form or the Flood in general. But it also left the door open for this memory to connect with her. When the surge went off, it detected the opposing psychic signal and latched onto it, like a leech. Only instead of sucking her dry, it's pouring data into her. Thought patterns and memories of this..."

"Precursor?" Shepard asked, a stern, serious look on his face.

Cortana nodded sadly.

"From what we can see, yes," she admitted. "These are the memories of a Precursor being downloaded into her head. We believe they are influencing her actions, manipulating her into doing what it wants under the guise of her own thoughts. The longer it stays connected, the more Tali can't tell the difference."

"Worse yet, to that end it could be reading Tali's own memories as well," Taq explained further. "Using them to cover its tracks, to make it look like its all her idea. And there is nothing more insidious than an idea from someone else implanted into your head. Ask any politician ever."

"But what are these memories?" Chief interjected. "Who did they come from? What does it want with Tali?"

Cortana searched through the data on her screen, while Taq tried her best to explain.

"The Forerunners did research on the Relic, they were able to crack who it was," the kig-yar began, her tone low and concerned. "The best translation I got says that they gave him a nickname, the Chronicler or Historian or something about collecting stories and shit. According to what the Forerunners found, he was some kind of Precursor record keeper. He cataloged the extensive history of their species and every asshole God thing they did. All the failed experiments and successes and whatever fucked up things an alien that can create life at will can do."

"So Tali was right," Shepard said, sounding astonished. "The Precursors were real and they could do all this, Create life at will, I mean. You confirmed it?"

"Well I'm going mostly off what I can discern from a dead language and what Tali was apparently screaming about," Taq responded curtly. "Cut me a break here if it ain't all definitive. Anyway, this Precursor, he didn't want to die with all his knowledge and experiences being lost. So he found our Relic, long before the Forerunners picked it up during their little failed Exodus trip, mind you, and downloaded all his thoughts and memories into it. He knew that with the artifact's ability to amplify machines and technology, that this would effectively freeze his mind in time. Allowing him to live on in the relic in a certain sense."

"Like a backup hard-drive for your brain," Shepard reasoned. "But one powerful enough to preserve everything you once were."

"Even a personality," Cortana added astutely. "From what we could ascertain, the Precursor must've done this prior to succumbing to whatever process it was that turned it into a Flood creature. Most likely in an attempt to make sure that, even after they altered themselves, a piece of what they once were would remain. This is all assuming the information it fed into Tali's head about the Precursors becoming the Flood is accurate of course, but given that these memories have latched onto the psychic scarring Tali got from her encounter with the Flood..."

"It would be weird if that was just a coincidence," Shepard said, concluding Cortana's own statement.

If even a fraction of this was accurate, and Shepard didn't really doubt any of it was at this point, the implications were rather dangerous. Tali's mind was now an open book to something ancient and terrifying, using a mixture of its memories and her own against her. Turning her against the very crew she trusted while making her believe it is all her idea. That all helped explain what was going on. What he wanted to know though was how they fixed it?

"Just tell me we can cure her," Shepard pleaded.

"In theory, we find a way to break the psychic hold the foreign memory has on Tali," Cortana explained. "If it can't transmit, it can't mess with her head. We can destroy the relic..."

"Which we're not even sure we can do by the way," Taq was quick to point out.

While the kig-yar didn't want Tali harmed, it was no surprise to Shepard she didn't want her relic damaged either. Not that is seemed like that was an option, how did you destroy something that was this old and this powerful safely? He didn't want to take the risk of it blowing up the ship along with it.

"Or we can find a way to force the memory back into stasis," Cortana continued. "That would potentially mean this could be a problem again if it finds a way to restart itself once more though. So I'm not sure how viable that is to be honest."

"Can't we just delete this memory?" Chief asked. "It's not an AI, but it's similar to one in theory. It is code after all."

"I don't think it has a matrix to smash though," Cortana warned. "I'm not saying we can't purge the memory from the relic, but I'm hesitant to do that while it is attached to Tali like it is. We could do more harm than good."

"So what is the answer?" Shepard asked frantically, his reserved tone quickly vanishing.

Cortana held her chin in her digital hand, inquisitively looking at the notes around her.

"The scarring that the Flood left on Tali's mental defenses may have given this thing an opening, but it also warned Tali of danger long before any of this happened," Cortana explained thoughtfully. "It's possible it might be the answer to kicking the Precursor's memory out of her. Perhaps even send a big enough residual psychic backlash in kind to destroy the memory utterly. The problem is, she has to weaken the signal that currently has a hold over her."

"And at the moment, she thinks she is fighting it when she's really playing into its hands," Taq continued. "Even then, realizing she's been fooled might not be enough. The signal works both ways, it latched onto Tali's mind because the scarring gave the memory something to feed off of and spread to."

"So what's it feeding off of?" Shepard asked frantically. "Her own memories?"

"I don't think so," Taq replied, crossing her arms. "The more control this memory exerts, the more violent, irrational and spiteful Tali becomes. Altering her own personality, dredging up toxic emotions and fears."

Shepard's mind clicked at that. The attack on Miranda, her angry rant on Boz's show, this Memory from the Relic was forcing her darkest fears and negative thoughts to boil over. That was what was feeding it.

"It's using those darker emotions to become powerful, assert control," he reasoned. "Okay, how do we use that against it?"

"Not us... Tali," Cortana reiterated. "Whatever hold it has on her, Tali has to confront it herself. The best we can do is try to make her realize what she needs to do and convince her to follow through on it."

So if they could just get to Tali and talk this whole thing out with her, maybe she'd realize the truth herself. Maybe they could get through to her. Convince her to shake off the Precursor in her head, kill it even if they were lucky.

"If we can just catch her, maybe we can make her see reason," Shepard said bluntly.

"We need to figure out her plan then," Chief said. "Where would she be heading now?"

"Well, she believes we need to confront this voice to kill it and stop it from destroying us all," Cortana reminded them all. "Chances are she's going to try and launch us into Slipspace and send us straight to the thing's doorstep. Odds are though that the coordinates stuck in her head are not what she thinks they are."

"So we stop her from reaching the _Ascendant Justice's_ engine room," Shepard declared.

"Shouldn't be a problem for the several squads of UNSC Soldiers and Marines then," Chief suggested. "They're between her and any direct path towards the engine room."

"Yeah, but this is Tali," Shepard reminded him. "She's not stupid enough to go charging at all those well-armed combatants and just hope she bulldozes through them. She has a plan, we need to think around it."

"You have some ideas?" Chief asked.

Shepard just nodded and looked to Cortana.

"Get me a layout of the _Justice_ ," he ordered. "We need to get some pieces in place fast."

* * *

Standing in the main corridor leading to the engine room, Kowalski kept watch with assault rifle readied. While loaded only with non-lethal training rounds for the moment, he was still dreading the whole confrontation. While he wasn't as familiar with Tali as the rest of the _Normandy_ crew, Samara had filled her in. She was a good person, kind, intelligent. All of this was not her, not at all. If what they said was true, then that relic had done a serious number on her somehow.

"So we just hit her with these non-lethal rounds until she drops?" Ellingham asked. "That simple huh?"

"Yeah, because simple is what this entire tour has been about, hasn't it?" Pearson snorted flippantly. "Nope, I'm betting his does not go to plan at all."

"You could sound more concerned about that, you know?" Ellingham informed him curtly.

"I could, but I choose not to as a coping mechanism," Pearson responded, keeping his tazer rifle readied.

"I'd figure the alien weapon would help you there," Ramirez claimed.

Pearson held the tazer weapon to eye level and chuckled.

"Hey, if it's good enough for a bunch of scummy batarian slavers to keep their property from running off, then maybe for once it can actually do some good," he claimed. "Plus come on, its a tazer. Don't tell me you never wanted to fire one of these before."

"Can't say I have," Ramirez claimed. "But, if they say it's non-lethal, I guess I can't complain. Maybe I'm just jealous cause you got the cool tech while me and Ellingham got the low tech beanbag guns. We didn't even luck out with training rounds."

"I wanted the hardening foam cannon, but apparently no one thought to bring one," Ellingham claimed. "Lame."

"Hey, we're Marines, not policemen, we don't get that kind of riot gear," Pearson reminded him. "Also, the training rounds don't come cheap round here. Supply and demand you know. That and no one thought we'd be, you know, shooting at one of our own... again. This better not become a habit."

Kowalski remained silent, he didn't have much to add. All he could do was feel worried for a friend of Samara's, running out there, out of her mind. Samara had told him to take care, that while she was committing great errors, the fault was not her own. She was under the sway of something dark. The asari was off somewhere else, she said they had a plan to help the quarian. She wouldn't say more. He hoped the plan meant they wouldn't have to open fire on Tali at all then, non-lethal rounds or no.

It was then that Kowalski spotted something in the shadow of the corridor in front of him. It was low to the ground, didn't look to be Tali's height, but he raised his weapon all the same, his training taking over.

"Movement," he warned the others.

One by one, Marines took up positions at barricades, crates and re-purposed Covenant shield barriers. As they aimed down the corridor, the rolling light became easier to see. It wasn't long before it was revealed to be a combat drone, a purple one to be exact.

"Hey that's the quarian's drone," Ramirez noted.

Agley, himself holding a tazer rifle looked relieved.

"Oh man, for a second there I got worried she might have hacked some Covie Ghost or whatever," he said, almost laughing at his previous fear. "I mean, we can take one little drone."

That was when more lights appeared, all purple, all low to the ground. One by one, out of the darkness, drones rolled into view, electric energy spiking between them all, electronic chirps sounding from them all, becoming less cute and cheerful as they began to echo within the corridor itself. Kowalski tried to count, coming to about forty drones facing them, maybe more.

"How about a small army of them?" Ramirez asked.

"Damn it, Agley! You had to jinx us!" Ellingham shouted in a rage.

Out of nowhere, a creeping crescendo of music rose above the gathering of drones. It was a song of some kind, straight off of BBR. As the first chord reached a peak, the drones rushed forward, electric arcs spewing from them all. The assorted Maines and Army Troopers fired back all at once, not waiting to let the drones close the distance. Some fired their non-lethal rounds, others switched back to regular bullets. All the while the song itself became the drones' battlecry.

 _ **You'll take my life, but I'll take yours too!**_

 _ **You'll fire your musket, but I'll run you through!**_

 _ **So when you're waiting for the next attack,**_

 _ **You better stand, there's no turning back!**_

Kowalski fumbled with his own regular bullets, switching out the training rounds for them. He hadn't been expecting this and he was somewhat relieved he wasn't shooting at Tali now. However, to see a legion of drones attacking him in her stead was not really much better. He let loose with his assault rifle, gunning down at least one drone, but another quickly took its place in the charge.

 _ **The bugle sounds and the Charge begins,**_

 _ **But on this battlefield no one wins!**_

 _ **The smell of acrid smoke and horses' breath,**_

 _ **As we plunge on into certain death!**_

Pearson and Agley had better luck, as their tazer shots killed the drones pretty quickly. The electro shocks more or less disrupted their circuitry and stopped them cold. All the same, even with the drones charging at them all, the Marines held their ground, even as the horde of energy balls rushed through the lines and began shocking the Marines themselves. Kowalski could tell that these attacks were non-lethal themselves, as all they seemed to do was incapacitate Marines or merely daze them. The drones were then quickly picked off by other Marines nearby.

As he was observing this, one of the drones got far too close and nearly zapped him. Luckily he ducked down into cover. Not that helped much, as the drone rolled around and prepared to fire again. Kowalski unloaded into it, killing it. He then rose back up to keep firing, even as the drones continued coming, breaking through their ranks and sectioning off the squads from each other, surrounding them.

 _ **The Horse he sweats with fear, we break to run**_

 _ **The mighty roar of the Russian guns!**_

 _ **And as we race towards the human wall,**_

 _ **The screams of pain as my comrades fall!**_

It was then Kowalski realized, Tali didn't send these things to clear the way for her. She had sent them to keep them trapped here. To tie them down at this corridor. Even as the current wave of drones started to ebb, another came up from behind it, another forty or so, all charging headlong right at them.

 _ **We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground,**_

 _ **And the Russians fire another round!**_

 _ **We get so near, yet so far away,**_

 _ **We won't live to fight another day!**_

Kowalski kept firing all the same, even as the song kept playing. It was evident though, that they had miscalculated their approach. He wasn't the only one who realized it either. He could see several squads pulling back to secondary, as their positions became untenable. Soldiers and Marines rushed back as others dragged their dazed or injured comrades out of the incoming charge. Even Pearson had realized what was going on.

"They're trying to trap us here! We need to fall back to the Engine Room! Call more support!"

"But that's probably what she wants!" Ellingham shouted over his continued fire.

"Well if we don't pull from the other groups we're going to get overwhelmed either way!" Pearson argued. "Come on!"

They fell back, but only to find a better place to hold. Kowalski thought of Samara's words, about the plan the _Normandy_ was enacting. If anyone could be one step ahead of their crewmate it was them. At least he hoped so.

* * *

Even though she wasn't an AI, even though she wasn't sentient in any fashion, Tali still hated having to do this. She hated sending Chiktikka to attack the Marines. Her fists clenched in anger at herself every time one of her cloned Drones shocked a Marine or a Marine shot one of them down, only for another to pop up and repeat the process. It was against everything she believed in, sending others to fight her battles.

Worse yet was how she was accomplishing it. She had boosted the cooldown rate for Chiktikka before, along with increasing the range with assistance from another hologram projector she had cannibalized during her trip to the armory. For this though, she had needed far more processing power.

Legion's platform was required, as it could hold and disseminate information far faster and with greater frequency then any omni-tool could. With the Geth programs that made up Legion on standby, it allowed Tali to process the Combat Drone protocol through several runtimes. Allowing her to create copies of Chiktikka and send them out on missions. It was why she had been both happy and saddened to see Legion, she had hoped to do it without their platform. But mother had been right, she had needed them in the end.

While she had made sure to set every drone's default combat subroutine to "non-lethal", it didn't lessen the sickening feeling in her stomach. She had betrayed Legion's trust, she had attacked the UNSC for only doing their jobs and, worst of all, violated her own principles. Chiktikka was never meant to be used this way. She had designed the drone herself as companion and defensive unit. She was never meant to be used as the bulwark of a mini-army. Now she was cannon fodder and there was no one Tali could blame for any of this but herself.

She wondered, was this what her ancestors were like? When they used the Geth as military units? That would make her more like them than she felt comfortable with admitting. She was after all forcing Legion's platform to walk with her using her omni-tool. That wasn't too dissimilar from what her ancestors did, wasn't it? If so, then maybe the shadowy voice had a point. Maybe they were similar, they were... no, she told herself angrily, no, she was nothing like them. This wasn't out of spite, this wasn't out of revenge. Whatever she felt about the UNSC and their xenophobia, she was not their enemy, she was not out to destroy them on a whim, she was trying to save them. She was NOT like them. She was nothing like them.

They would forgive her. They had to. When they understood, they're forgive her. She had to believe that. Seeing Legion's body walking beside her, under her control, it was the only thing that kept her from snapping. The belief that this would be worth it, that there was no other way. She just had to reach the Engine Room and this Maintenance Corridor would take her straight to a secondary entryway, one used by the Huragok to get through the ship more efficiently.

They soon reached the entryway, a longer more spacious area within the ship's inner workings. Now she could properly stand, instead of crouching constantly. It wouldn't be long before she was inside the engine room, then this whole ordeal would start to pay off. Unfortunately, that was when she a heard a biotic field activate. She then turned to see Legion's platform being pulled away from her down the passageway. When she looked back, there was Jack, standing in her way. Her biotics were not activated though, so she suspected someone else, turning back briefly, out of the corner of her eye, she could see Samara, slightly illuminated by the purple lighting and her own biotic field.

Shepard and the others had probably figured out her plan of attack. She should've known, they were smart, they knew her, even if she didn't entirely know them as well as most. She was a bit surprised Wade himself hadn't come. Or maybe he was waiting at another ambush point, there were a lot of entrances after all, they could've spread out.

"Let me pass," Tali demanded.

"Sorry, Tali, not happening," Jack informed her. "We're taking you back so they can find a way to flush that Relic's garbage thoughts out of your noggin."

"Then we never find the voice and it kills us all," Tali shouted at her. "Why don't you understand that?"

"Tali, you must realize that none of these actions you've taken are your own," Samara tried to reason. "Your mind is being bent to the will of a creature long dead. The Relic is a conduit for this voice, but it resides within. It is deceiving you, driving you to extremes with the promise you can kill it. But you're not killing it, you're helping it."

Tali turned to Samara with rage in her eyes.

"I'm fighting it, I'm fighting it with every inch of my soul!" She screamed. "I just need to keep connected a little longer and I can win!"

"No, you can't win, Tali," Jack spoke up. "Not like this. Because whatever the fuck is talking to you, convincing you that whatever you're doing is a good idea, it's not. The only way you're going to fix this, is if you come with us before you do something you'll regret."

"As if you would know anything about regret," Tali said angrily. "I regret so much, so many things. My mother's death, my relationship with my father, not telling Wade how I felt sooner, hating Legion for as long as I did, leading my team on Haestrom to their deaths, what I did to Cor-"

She stopped herself there, unable to keep speaking, choking up at the very thought. She steeled her gaze regardless.

"I certainly regret what I've had to do here," she finally spoke up in a rage. "Do you think I enjoy this? Any of it? I know what this is costing me, but I'm trying to save people at least. Everything you've done though, Jack, what do you regret? If anything?"

Tali could tell she touched a nerve, as the convict's face contorted into a snarl. But the continuing silence spoke volumes all the same.

"Just as I thought," Tali snorted in defiance. "At least Samara knows about sacrifice. You? You're happy with everyone hating you. What do you have left to lose, right? I have everything to lose, but I'm doing this anyway because it means so much more than just me. Something you could never understand because you're a selfish loner who only stuck around with us because you enjoy finding new things to kill!"

"Fine! Maybe that's what I am!" Jack relented, rage boiling over. "But at least I'm the one who's actually being reasonable here! You're the one going around attacking everyone at random, even if they're friends!"

"Miranda is not my friend!" Tali screeched. "She's a traitor! I know it! She wants to take Wade away from me!"

"Whatever crimes Lawson has committed still mark her," Samara declared. "But her time with Cerberus has ended. She is only a traitor to them, not us. Besides, what about Taq?"

"She wouldn't tell me what I needed to know!" Tali said defensively. "I had no choice, I had to knock her out or she would've told everyone what was going on!"

"Oh great, now you're using my lines," Jack snorted. "You know, I actually don't care you clocked the Cheerleader. I always figured our mutual dislike of her was something we could bond over. That's still no excuse for any of this. Seriously, what is so hard for you to get here? You're attacking everyone who's actually trying to help while you're on this insane quest to murder a creepy voice only you can hear!"

Tali could only laugh derisively at the comment.

"Oh please," she chortled. "What is that human saying?" Pot and saucepan?"

"Pot calling kettle black, Ms. Zorah," DOT corrected aloud.

"Exactly," Tali said, before looking accusingly at Jack. "You of all people are going to lecture me about attacking friends? You? The woman who has done nothing but reject every open hand and every chance she's ever had at being normal or respected? So much so you push away any chance at happiness! All you ever do is hurt people, Jack! That's all you're good at! Why else do you think they sent you down here to confront me? Because you're biotic muscle! That's it!"

In an instant, Jack's "biotic muscles" came alive, as a fiery blue haze erupted over her.

"Screw this, we're wasting time," she declared. "Let's just stasis her and drag her back already!"

As Jack charged her attack, Samara tried to caution her against the action.

"Jack, wait!"

It was already too late, Jack had launched a Stasis attack at Tali. The quarian dodged away before it got too close. Lucky for Samara, her own kinetic barriers prevented the Stasis attack from freezing her. The miss, however, was still exploited by Tali nonetheless. She activated dampening, assaulting Jack's Amp with a terrible feedback loop. The ex-Con looked incensed, but her biotics didn't seem at all affected.

"Nice try," she shouted through gritted teeth. "But unlike the cheerleader, I don't need an Amp to kick your ass!"

Biotic Amps mostly just boosted or controlled biotic power. Most of the time, deactivating it with Dampening disrupted a person's ability to use them for a short time. At least until the amp could adjust to the attack. Jack, however, was powerful enough without one, even if the disruption still caused her visible pain. You could it hear it with the strain in her own voice as she tried to send Shockwave attacks to knock Tali down. They probably would've worked too, had Tali not also activated a few Chiktikka drones to absorb the attacks for her.

With the drones acting as shields, Tali reached for one of her pouches. She pulled out a smoke grenade that she had stolen from the armory and threw it at Jack's feet. A huge plume of grey exploded out from the spinning device. Before long, a huge cloud had coated the passageway, obscuring everyone's vision, save for Tali. She activated her visor's thermal display, allowing her to locate both Jack and Samara. The former was throwing wild biotic punches at the air randomly.

"You're making this way harder than it has to be, Zorah!" She shouted aloud. "That Relic is fucking with your head! Whatever that fucking voice is saying is a lie!"

As if she didn't already know that. Why did they think that would convince her to stop? Samara was at least being more careful and purposeful in her reactions. She paced carefully trough the thick smoke, keeping her biotics ready but not expending energy.

"Tali, none of this is of your own doing, but I will defend myself if I have to," she assured the quarian. "You are being manipulated. Taq can explain everything better than I. Simply come with us and we can help you overcome the evil that has poisoned you."

Tali didn't doubt she wanted to help, but they couldn't. They just didn't understand, they hadn't seen what she had. It was why she had to get into the engine room. Luckily, she knew of a shortcut to get there from here. She felt around on the ground, her fingers pressing at the creases in the floor. It had to be here somewhere, the air ventilation shaft. She could get inside and literally slide down the rest of the way. They wouldn't be able to stop her.

Her fingers finally clutched at something, a latch, perfect. She lifted it up, revealing the vent below. The noise she made opening it though caught Samara's attention. The Asari moved to send a Stasis attack at the quarian, Tali reacted as fast as she could, firing a dampening attack. Samara clutched at her head as her attack went wild. With no time to spare, Tali jumped into the vent proper. She could hear Jack running to stop her, but it wouldn't matter. As soon as she had closed the latch, Tali superheated the lock with her omni-tool, soddening it shut before Jack could force it back open. With that done, she let go of the tiny door itself and allowed her body to slide the rest of the way to her destination.

Busting through the intake grate, Tali landed within the engine room. She quickly got to her feet, pulling her weapon out and pointing it forward. She had expected to find some engineers waiting for her arrival, perhaps with tazer weapons to take her into custody. Instead, she found no one, the room was empty save for some Huragoks floating around. Of course, it was late in the sleep cycle for one and everyone knew she was coming here. They wouldn't want to risk giving her hostages to keep them at bay. They must've cleared everyone out, but they wouldn't have done that without some contingencies.

While she searched for a terminal, she took in her surroundings. Covenant engine rooms were a lot different from UNSC ones. The _Normandy_ had some similarities, given its drive core taking up the majority of the room. The plasma core of the Carrier was more visible behind it's protective shielding though. The pulsating blue of the central core itself, bathed the entire bay in a light glow. You could also walk the whole way around as well. As per Covenant design, the whole place exuded the feel of a church or temple rather than a ship.

Tali found the central panel near the back of the room, facing the forward doors. She logged in and used DOT to override access to the doors. She needed absolute privacy. Even if she had no one in here with her to keep them back, she could at least stall them. It only took a minute before she had control.

"Security Lockdown of engine room in effect," DOT reported. "I must continue to advise, however, that there is no internal threat to the ship that can be de-"

"Enough, DOT," Tali ordered bluntly. "We need to prepare the engines and find the emergency secondary navigation panel."

Tali set to work and turned on the Omni-Tool's radio again. She kept an ear open for anything concerning the engine room or her. She expected BBR to eventually report on something soon. In the meantime, Iron Maiden music echoed through the chamber itself, as Tali started flicking switches and commands on various consoles. She was pooling power back into relevant sections of the core, in preparation for a slipspace jump. The machines around her hummed to life, as she worked her way through the relevant procedure.

 _ **Here is the soul of a man**_

 _ **Here in this place for the taking**_

 _ **Clothed in white, stand in the light**_

 _ **Here is the soul of a man**_

Tali only barely paid attention to the song, her mind too focused on preparing the ship. To activate slipspace, she'd need to find the emergency navigation panel. It was where the crew could control the ship if command from the bridge was somehow lost. Apparently, even the Covenant understood the idea of system redundancies to an extent. She did locate it, on the second level, but her attempt to log in, even with DOT failed. She tried again, failure. The system was locking out. She briefly wondered if it was the bridge, but no, it couldn't be. This was far too quick a lockout. Her commands were countered faster than the usual belay signal could be met. And when some of the system cycles she had just set in motion got powered down, she knew the truth.

Someone was in here with her.

 _ **Time to speak with the Shaman again**_

 _ **Conjure the Jester again**_

 _ **Black Dog in the Ruins is Howling my name**_

 _ **So here is the soul of a man**_

Tali kept her gun out, trying not to let the music, or the now moving shadows, distract her. She could feel the voice's breath, trying to break her focus, confuse her. She could hear skittering and scattering around her. She briefly wondered if all of this was another illusion. Tricking her into thinking she had failed. The images of the Shadow Precursor seemed to suggest as much. He crawled around the walls, multiple versions of him, eyes glowing a sickly yellowish-red.

 _ **When the world was virgin**_

 _ **Before the coming of men**_

 _ **Just a solar witness**_

 _ **The Beginning of the End**_

 _ **From a world of magma**_

 _ **To a cold rock face**_

 _ **The Ascent of Madness**_

 _ **And the human race**_

That was when Tali realized, there was only one person who could match her, who could undo her hacking and override her procedures. She turned on her thermal imaging and scanned about the room. Her eyes searched every terminal, every corner, looking for her quarry.

 _ **We are strange believers, All of us**_

 _ **There are stranger truths, Immortal lust**_

 _ **We rise from slumber, He calls our name**_

 _ **Recalls our number, Abide with Pain**_

She finally spotted an outline of heat, faint, but there. She pointed her weapon at it cautiously, biting her lip as she tried to work up the courage.

"Kas," she began nervously. "I know you're there, Kas. Drop the cloak."

All at once, Kasumi's cloak vanished and she now stood plainly visible in the room. Her hands were up, but her usual joyful smirk was gone. Replaced with a clear sad melancholy.

"So, you gonna shoot me now?" She asked sardonically.

Tali lowered her gun, but raised her omni-tool.

"I... I don't need to," she claimed. "I can... I can just use a low level overload to... to shock you. Like a tazer or something. I... I don't want to hurt anyone, Kas. You have to believe that."

"I do believe it, Tali," Kasumi assured, still keeping her hands raised. "But the fact is you have hurt people. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's true. Whatever you think you're doing, it's not helping you. It's not helping anyone."

Tali clutched at her head as a new headache coursed through it. Kasumi tried to step forward in that moment, but Tali backed away, keeping her omni-tool held high.

"It keeps talking to me, Kas," Tali told her friend, her eyes near bursting with tears. "It keeps showing me what it has done. What it will do again. I have to stop it. No one else can stop it but me."

"After everything we've been though, how can you possibly think no one else can stop it?" Kasumi asked pleadingly. "We've fought off the impossible together, as a team. Why not this?"

"Because no one is listening!" Tali screamed. "Everyone thinks I'm insane! That this isn't real! Well it is, it feels more real than you can imagine and it makes me sick! I need to stop it! I need to kill it! It's the only way to shut it up!"

Kasumi placed her hands in front of her, trying her best to comfort her friend.

"Tali, listen," she tried to explain. "Just listen to me for a second. I believe you. We all do. We found something out about that relic, Tali. It's about the thing that's talking to you. There's something inside the relic feeding you lies. Manipulating you into doing all of this. You have to resist it, Tali. You have to fight it!"

"I am fighting it!" Tali snarled in anger. "What do you think all this has been?"

"It's tricking you, Tali! It's making you do what it wants!" Kasumi shouted back. "Please! You have to believe me, Taq figured it out. If you come back with us, we can actually fix this. We can show you how."

Tali reached for the relic in her pouch, grasping it between her fingers. She felt another rush of information, flooding all at once into her head. Even as she clutched it, her head pounded in agony. The Relic itself was pulsating with light. She resisted the urge to throw it away, she needed it, she needed it to kill the voice. She needed it to end this.

"I... I can't turn back now," she insisted. "After everything... all I've done. I have to make this right, Kas."

"You can! Just give me the Relic and-"

"No, I have to prove I'm not like them!" Tali screamed, pulling the relic further away from Kasumi, even as the hooded thief reached for it. "I have to atone! I have to kill it! Killing it is the only way I can prove I'm not like them!"

"Tali, stop," Kasumi pleaded. "You're letting it get into your head! You don't have to prove anything to anyone! Those things you're seeing, those are someone else's crimes! You're not guilty!"

"I am!" Tali cried. "I am guilty! We're all guilty! And I have to make it right!"

Kasumi tried to make a sudden move to grab the relic. Tali reacted instantly.

"I have to make it right!"

An overload blast hit Kasumi, shorting out her shields and hitting her with several volts. The thief fell backwards hitting hitting her head against a console. The scene broke Tali out of her painful anguish and she rushed over to her friend's side, pulling back her hood. Kasumi was knocked out and Tali could do nothing but cry.

"I didn't mean it," she sobbed. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted to do the right thing. I want to save you. I'm sorry, I have to make it right. I'm not a monster. I can't let it make me a monster."

" **We are all monsters in our own way. We are all damned and yet saved. We are shackled but free."**

The shadows were around her now, looking down on her as Tali cradled Kasumi in her arms. The music continued to play, the chorus repeating over and over.

 _ **Reef in the sail at the edge of the world,**_

 _ **If Eternity Should Fail**_

 _ **Waiting in Line for the Ending of Time,**_

 _ **If Eternity Should Fail**_

Tali kept holding Kasumi, looking up defiantly at the shadows around her, but her fear was clear. No matter what it took, no matter how much she lost, she would not become them. She would never become them. As if reading her thoughts, the shadows answered.

" **You fear what is inevitable. You have joined the eternal, the everlasting. It is too late for you. Too late for forgiveness. Too late for anyone."**

* * *

Kasumi was still alive, her life signs made that clear enough at least. She was down though and Tali was still on course to completing her mission. Chief didn't know where she intended to send them to, but if this memory thing was feeding her the coordinates, he did not want to find out the answer. For all they knew, it was leading them to some quarantined Flood world or an exploding star or maybe a Covie Fleet, who could say at this point? None of the prospects sounded good. The problem was they were running out of options to reach the quarian. Shutting down the core would be their best option obviously, but they were hoping Kasumi would've gotten around to do that before subduing Tali.

Now, outside one of the hatches leading into the engine room, currently on lockdown and behind a big old bulkhead door, their options seemed limited. If not dried up. Shepard of course remained hopeful. Mostly because Kasumi hadn't completely failed. Besides setting up enough system blocks and reroutes to keep Tali from getting full control of the slipspace drive for a good while, she had also given them a lock on Tali's comms frequency. The quarian had kept changing constantly to avoid detection, but now they had a lock.

"I need to contact her directly," he declared firmly. "I can talk her down."

"Talking her down doesn't seem to be working, sir," Chief warned. "It's not enough."

"We can't give up on her," Shepard stated, his glare unflinching. "I won't give up."

"I didn't say that we should," Chief assured him. "But we need a new approach."

"He's right," Cortana spoke up in agreement. "You heard her over Goto's feed. The memory has latched onto her guilt, her regret, her anger and self-hatred. Everything Tali has ever blamed herself for, every guilty feeling or thought, it's feeding the Precursor Memory."

Shepard was still fearful, but he wasn't blind. He nodded, concurring with Cortana's assessment.

"Ever since we first met, Tali has always been quick to blame herself first more than anyone," he said thoughtfully. "You think I put the world on my shoulders? Tali places almost as much responsibility on herself. Every failure is worse in her eyes. Hell, she was willing to get exiled from her fleet just to protect her dead father's reputation."

"Why?" Chief asked confused.

"He... he did something terrible," Shepard answered carefully. "It's hard to explain and personal. It doesn't matter, the point is, she takes on a lot of blame. Some she doesn't deserve, some she does. She's made mistakes, we all do, but... Tali's hurt her more."

In a way, Chief knew what that was like. Any mistake he made was a mark on him, a lesson to do better, to be better. The strain could be unbearable for many. He wasn't the only one that seemed to understand either.

"I think this is something specific," Cortana stated. "Something that has become a focal point that Tali has fixated on. It's allowing the Precursor memory to keep her mind forced open. It won't let go until she faces it. Like we discussed, it's up to her."

"But what could it be?" Shepard asked. "The Slipspace Drive project? This all started with that."

"I think it's something else," Cortana replied rather grimly. "Something a bit older than that."

"What do you mean?" Chief asked, curious as it seemed the AI already knew the answer ahead of them.

Cortana was silent for a bit, longer than Chief was comfortable with. When she spoke, it was with purpose.

"I have a backdoor entry into Tali's Omni-Tool, I can upload myself via the lock we have on the comm," she claimed. "I need to speak to her, alone."

"Cortana..."

"It's the only way, Chief," she informed him. "Trust me. I think I'm the only one that can help her now."

* * *

Tali worked at a feverish pace, running through the procedure checks and command codes, trying to undo everything Kasumi had obviously done to prevent her from getting access. Just severing the connection with the bridge itself was going to take a while. Leaving that open would allow anyone at the helm to cancel the jump, so cutting them off was crucial to completing the plan. It was not easy to do when shadows surrounded you, taunting, whilst your head pounded in pain from every sneering jeer and biting insult. As far as they were concerned, she had already failed. She had to prove it wrong, she had to kill the voice, no matter the cost to herself.

The only thing that could drown out the shadows around her was the music, which by now she had cranked up as high as she could while still being able to think. At this point, it was the last comfort she had left. The last shred of some normality even as she felt her sanity slipping away with every second. Although it didn't help ease her mind that every song seemed to punctuate her dire situation.

 _ **I'm waiting in my cold Cell when the Bell begins to chime**_

 _ **Reflecting on my past life and it doesn't have much time**_

 _ **Because at Five O'Clock they take me to the Gallows Pole**_

 _ **The Sands of Time for me are running low**_

Tali looked over to Kasumi propped up against a wall. She was still knocked out, but at least Tali had gotten hold of herself long to give her some medi-gel to help with her head injury. She was hoping she'd be out long enough to undo everything done to these consoles. The sooner they were in slipspace, the sooner this could be over. They'd have no choice then, they'd have to help her kill the voice then.

" **Everyone has turned on you, nothing you do will ever sponge away your sins."**

"Shut up," Tali demanded, clenching her fists through tears. "Why can't you just shut up?"

" **The truth cannot be silenced, your evolution is nearly complete. You will be with us soon."**

"That's the idea," Tali scowled. "That's when I kill you."

The voice just cackled as his various forms scurried around her.

" **We are beyond death, beyond understanding, beyond life. There is no victory for you. Only submission. Only acceptance of our gift."**

Tali pounded the console command, turning the engine power reroute cycle. At the same time, she clutched the relic, trying to keep the coordinates in her head. She needed to remember it, so she could input it quickly. As she did though, she spotted a blinking light on the dash.

 _ **When the Priest comes to read me the last rites**_

 _ **I take a look through the bars at the last sights**_

 _ **Of a world that has gone very wrong for me!**_

Tali wasn't sure why the light was blinking, as that command wasn't part of this sequence. She presumed it was one of Kasumi's roadblocks, preventing further access. She'd have to check it out, it was the only way to be sure. She reached for the command switch, although one of the shadowy hands tried to grab at her. Even if it wasn't real, only an illusion, a dream, she still recoiled as the face of the shadow loomed in front of her, snarling at her.

 _ **Can it be that there's some sort of error?**_

 _ **Hard to stop the surmounting terror**_

 _ **Is it really the end, not some crazy dream?**_

Now Tali knew that the light was something the Precursor creature didn't want her to touch. It was the only time it had even attempted to stop her. She quickly moved to hit the command, the shadow still grasping at her. She slammed her palm down, even as her head pounded in pain. One of the shadows grabbed at her, pulling her away from the console even as she struggled.

 _ **Somebody please tell me that I'm dreaming,**_

 _ **It's not easy to stop from screaming**_

 _ **The words escape me when I try to speak!**_

Tali screamed aloud, swinging wild punches in anger at the shadows. They weren't real, she kept telling herself, they weren't there. They had only fooled her mind, she had to fight them. No matter how much they grabbed at her, mocked her, battered her, she had to remember they were not real. They were apparitions, monsters, trying to stop her, trying to destroy her. She had to keep fighting them, she had to save the crew, she had to save everyone. She would not die a monster. She would not die without some form of atonement. This all had to be worth something!

 _ **Tears flow, but why am I crying?**_

 _ **After all I'm not afraid of dying!**_

 _ **Don't I believe that there never is an end!**_

Tali finally pulled away from the shadows, throwing herself back onto the console. A bluish light cascaded down onto her. Was it the navigation sequence? Has she unlocked it? Her eyes slowly raised up to see the origin point. It was not a holographic screen, but someone else, Cortana, standing upon the console looking down at her.

"Hey, Tali," she began succinctly. "I've heard you've been having a bad day."

Tali pushed herself up into a standing position, but she looked upon the AI frightfully. She didn't want to see her, but at the same time a part of her wanted to. She hated herself for not at least trying to talk to Cortana, for not going to her, but she had been afraid. To face Cortana now was to face her greatest shame directly. To continue to lie to someone she cared for. To lie to herself.

"How did you-"

"Backdoor through your communication channels," Cortana informed her. "I ciphered my upload through your Omni-Tool and into this terminal. It's really the only way to keep you out at this point."

Tali grimaced, but pulled up her omni-tool all the same.

"DOT, activate systems override for-"

"She can't help you now," Cortana stated. "I instituted my own override while being uploaded. She's gone into standby mode until your status has been cleared."

Tali slammed her fist on the dashboard, her breathing getting heavier and more infuriated by the moment. One of the Shadows grasped at her shoulder with a strange tentacle and whispered into her ear.

" **As always, the machine turns on your kind. We warned you this would happen. You should've killed them all."**

"Shut up, shut up," Tali said, placing her hands on either side of her head. "Why won't you shut up?"

Cortana, as per usual, was rather astute about the situation.

"I trust you're not talking to me," she reasoned. "We're... not alone are we?"

"I'm never alone now," Tali sobbed. "They're everywhere."

"They're not real, Tali," Cortana reminded her. "I know you know that."

"I don't think I know what is real anymore," Tali wept. "It's just another thing they've taken. Certainty, privacy, safety... my mind."

Cortana quieted her, her voice calm and reassuring.

"They haven't won, Tali," the AI told her. "You can beat them, but not the way you think."

"I have to silence the voice, Cortana," Tali cried openly, her fingers clutching the console board. "Don't you see? They're... killing me. They're going to kill us all. I have... I have to save you. I have to make this right. Please, just let me save you."

"We're not the ones who need saving, Tali," Cortana told her firmly. "That thing, it's not speaking to you from space. It's inside the Relic itself. It's a memory, Tali. A memory of a Precursor feeding you half truths and twisted facts. It has been using you this whole time, manipulating you. This plan you've come up with to save us... it's not yours. The Precursor fed it to you and made you think it was your own."

The shadow suddenly slammed a tentacle on the console and scowled into the side of Tali's face.

" **The machines always lie! They have lied since they were born! You know this! You've always known this! Your father died knowing this! Why betray your people now? Why listen to an unliving thing that seeks your end! Do you not see? They have abandoned you. You turned on them. Now they send this thing of code to deceive you. They have not forgiven. You cannot be forgiven for what you've done. To them... and to it."**

Tali wanted to argue, she wanted to scream back at the shadow and tell it that she didn't believe a word. That it was the liar, that it was deceiving her. But a part of her knew there was a kernel of truth. Her sins were unforgivable. Her actions impossible to absolve. She was hated, she was a pariah, she was abandoned, like all quarians were. And once Cortana realized the truth, she too would leave her to die.

 _ **As the guards march me out to the courtyard**_

 _ **Somebody cries from a cell, "God be with you!"**_

 _ **If there's a God then why has he let me go?**_

"It doesn't matter," Tali said, letting her tears flood her visor. "I've destroyed everything to get this far. My crew has abandoned me. They've all abandoned me. I'm... I'm an exile. I tried to escape that fate, but I failed. I'm an exile now. This... this is my only way to atone."

 _ **And as I walk my life drifts before me,**_

 _ **Though the end is near I'm not sorry!**_

 _ **Catch my soul, it's willing to fly away!**_

Tali moved to press more commands, to finish what she started, but Cortana moved in front of her hand. The quarian paused, unable to move, even knowing the AI couldn't physically restrain her.

"That's not you, Tali! That's the memory talking!" She shouted pleadingly. "It is using your emotions against you! All your self-doubt, anger, fears, inner loathing, guilt and hatred, it feeds off them! The more you let it in, the more you give it control. That's how it has been convincing you to keep going. Tali, wherever the Relic is leading you to, it wants you to go there! Think about it, why would this thing, if it has control over your senses, allow you to see something that it knows would help you kill it?"

Tali couldn't answer. It didn't make sense. She it didn't. But... perhaps she had cracked the Relic. Maybe she just caught a lucky break? What if the voice overplayed its hand? Maybe that's why she had the coordinates... but still...

"I don't know how this works," Tali insisted. "All I know is that this is the right thing!"

"Do you think that or does the Precursor?" Cortana asked cuttingly. "Tali, you need to shut off its connection to you. It's worse now that you're touching the relic. You have to turn the tables on it before you're completely lost."

"How?" Tali asked pleadingly. "How can I do that? You think if I knew of another way I wouldn't have tried it?"

"It's hiding the other way from you, Tali! It's scared of you figuring it out!" Cortana insisted desperately. "Think, did you ever have doubts about this? Second thoughts? A feeling that something wasn't quite right?"

Tali was silent for a moment, which was enough for Cortana.

"And when you thought that way, when you strayed," the AI questioned as it continued probing, "what happened to get you back on track?"

Tali's eyes went wide and this time she had an immediate answer.

"Mother," she said wistfully, fearfully. "I... I saw my mother."

"It wasn't her," Cortana informed her sadly. "Tali, the connection works both ways. The Precursor Memory can see into your mind as much as you can its own. It's using your past against you, to hide the truth."

"What truth?" Tali asked desperately, her sobs painful and wretched.

"That you can beat it," Cortana assured her. "That you're stronger than it! That you can fight it! Not somewhere out there, but right here, inside you!"

Tali looked to both Cortana and the console, her vision blurred through tears, her thoughts swimming in confusion. The AI's words made a sick, strange sort of sense. Why had her mother always appeared during doubt and only then? Didn't she need comfort? Why hadn't she stayed? Where was she when the voice spoke? Where was she when she was hurt and in pain and needed to just talk? Where was she now when she was surrounded by nothing but shadow? When she needed her most?

"Tali, you need to finish it."

The shadows were gone and suddenly her Mother was behind her again, bathed in white light... but it wasn't as strong before. It was not a beacon, just a glare.

"You can't pause, you must finish," she pressed. "Your people, your crew, the future of all life, depends on you not stopping. You have work, finish it. Ignore the synthetic, it is confusing you. It does not understand."

It didn't understand. It couldn't understand. It hadn't seen what she had. At this point what choice did she even have? She could live with what she done if it was worth it. She didn't need Legion or Garrus or her people... Cortana... Wade?

Wait! No! Why was she thinking that? How could she think that? And Cortana wasn't an it! She was a she! She was her friend!

"Those aren't my thoughts!" Tali screamed in angered realization, turning to her so-called mother. "Those are yours! All yours!"

Her mother glared at her, the warmth vanishing at last.

"You're not her," Tali glowered in rage. "You were never her! You're the voice! You're the shadow! You're the Precursor!"

Her "mother's" face turned up into a glinting smirk, self-satisfied and callous.

"Tali, my dear child," she said, in a mocking tone. "Do you know what happened when I died? You know what my last thoughts were? Relief. Total and absolute relief. Because at long last... it was over. I didn't have to put up with it all anymore. The fleet, the racism of the Galaxy, your father's distance and most of all... you."

Tali began to clutch her fists together, her breathing become heavy and worried. She wanted to shut this out, to close off her senses, to hear no more. But she couldn't even raise her hands to shut the apparition out.

"You were always so disappointing," the image claimed. "Always so eager to be liked and loved, so... pathetic in your pursuit of affection. Mine, your father's, it carried over to Shepard too it seems. But you were just not good enough. You never were. How could you be? In every way you were Rael's shadow. The fleet thought so highly of you, that you'd do great things. But you never really amounted to much beyond a sad little girl who couldn't accept her father and mother never wanted her in the first place. That all she was to them was a distraction. A reminder that they had produced something so inadequate."

Tali's anger boiled over into a rage, turning away from her mother and clutching the dashboard. Something that didn't escape Cortana.

"It's not real," she told her. "Whatever is happening, whatever it is saying, it's not real! And it's not true!"

"What does it know of truth?" The apparition claimed. "It doesn't even know what you did to it. What you did to your own mind. It will turn on you as soon as it learns, just like everyone does when they find out the truth about you, my daughter. You're a sad, spiteful, hateful little girl, full of rage and jealousy and close-mindedness. How can you possibly think you can save anyone, let alone our people? You're going to doom us all... because you're not good enough. That's why Rael never loved you. That's why I only pretended, because breaking your little heart just wasn't in me."

"Stop it," Tali pleaded. "Just stop it!"

"Now I know no pain," the fake mother claimed. "So there's no need to lie. No need to concern myself with hurting you. I'm above that. We all are. And I can assure you, your father feels the same... and he waits for you beyond. But first, I can watch you slip into madness yourself. Just before you join us."

The image started laughing, cackling actually, as her form turned from Tali's mother, back into the shadowy image of the Precursor. Tali clutched at her head in anguish. Despair ran over her. She had been manipulated, lied to. She had thought she had been saving everyone, but she had failed. She had failed from the start. She was a fool, an idiot, just like everyone always knew. She had been too weak, too angry, to vengeful to see it.

Cortana moved into her field of view.

"Tali, listen," she commanded. "The more you give into this anger and guilt, the stronger the Memory gets. You need to shake off its influence! It's the only way to stop him!"

"How?" Tali sobbed. "I've played into its hands! I was killing everyone all along! I'm a monster!"

"No! You're not!" Cortana tried to assure him. "Tali, you are the kindest, most intelligent person I know! You care about other people! While you were wrong about all this, your actions aren't that of a monster. You're a victim, Tali, you can't blame yourself for this!"

"Who else is to blame?" Tali asked pleadingly. "I did all of this! It all came from me! The rage, the anger..."

"That's not all you are!" Cortana insisted. "Tali, you need to let go of your guilt and self-doubt! You need to confront it! Or you'll never escape this thing's pull! You're stronger than it!"

"I'm not!"

"You are!" Cortana declared. "Your crew, your friends, me, we all know you are! We haven't given up on you! Don't give up on yourself!"

Tali looked into Cortana's eyes, blubbering and tearful.

"You don't know," she claimed. "You don't know what I've done! You're only saying that because you don't know!"

"I don't know what, Tali?" Cortana insisted. "What? Tell me! If it's all so hopeless, why don't you just tell me?"

In an instant, everything crumbled down around her. She couldn't contain herself. If she was to lose herself, she would not die with a lie.

"Because I put myself in you!" She cried in anguish. "I put a fragment of myself into you!"

Cortana was silent, motionless, prompting Tali to explain more.

"Halsey took a fragment from you and brought me in to work with it," the quarian continued, not missing a beat or taking a breath. "I was working with her in her lab on Reach. She had me work with your fragment, bond with it. Then... then she had me add to it. I digitized a part of cloned brain tissue from myself, just like when Halsey made you. Just enough to make a fragment of an AI of myself. And then I uploaded it to your own fragment. I added a part of myself to you. When I met the real you on the _Autumn_ that day, I had known you for far longer. That systems upgrade I gave you? That was the fragment! A part of me inside of you!"

Cortana remained motionless, her face seemingly blank. Tali expected anger any moment, but she needed to finish.

"Don't you see! Our whole friendship, it's based on a lie!" She exclaimed, tears flowing in a torrent of anguish and guilt. "You only feel connected to me because I violated you with a part of myself! Without your knowledge! I wanted to tell you, Cortana, but Halsey said it might damage your matrix, cause you to reject the fragment, turn you rampant early or something! But I think I was actually worried about losing your respect, your friendship, more than anything! That you'd hate me and you'd be right to! I just wanted to be better, I wanted to change! I wanted to understand! And in my quest to feel connected with synthetic life, and do just that, I've become just like my father! I violated you, Cortana! I'm sorry! I know that's not enough, it never will be, but I'm sorry!"

Tali slammed her head at last onto the console, weeping openly at the last shred of respect she had. The last friendship she had now ruined. She didn't blame anyone but herself for it. She deserved to be hated, for everything she had done and more. She deserved this.

Then, Cortana placed her holographic hand on her head.

"I knew."

Tali's sobs quieted almost instantly.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"I knew," Cortana explained rather simply. "Practically almost to the millisecond after the upload. I detected a foreign data packet in my code. I soon recognized it as a different AI matrix pattern, incomplete but there. I suspected it was based on you. The fragment had some... interesting similarities. Rather stand-offish, not nearly as social as me, but longing to be. Certainly a bit of dry snark too. Also a few telltale memories that weren't my own or Halsey's."

Tali couldn't believe it. She had known, from the start?

"Honestly, I'm surprised Halsey thought she could hide the whole thing from me," Cortana stated with a shrug. "I'm an infiltration program, that's my core function. Did she think I wouldn't notice something like that?"

"But... why...?"

"It was harmless really," Cortana continued rather plainly. "Once I realized what it was, it was easier to incorporate it into my matrix. Sometimes I hear the stray thought or see a memory or two, but it's no different than Halsey's own stuff. Honestly, it's nice to get something new, a fresh perspective. Remembering fragments of Halsey's life all the time was getting boring. Like too many reruns, it's nice to get something different."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Tali asked at last.

Cortana just smiled.

"Because I knew you'd tell me eventually," she explained. "And I wanted you to be the one to do it. I'll also admit that I was concerned you'd get scared, like you'd think something went wrong with the process. Mostly though, I just wanted to know more about this person, an alien, that Halsey clearly trusted enough to do this. I mean, it was pretty obvious who was behind the whole thing. She might be a part of ONI, but Halsey isn't exactly subtle in her decision making. She also needs to remember more often that I'm her in a sense, I kind of know her better than she thinks."

Tali was still put off by it all. For all her anguish, her fear, her guilt and regret, Cortana didn't seem at all upset.

"You're not mad?" She asked. "You're not even enraged or-"

"I was apprehensive at first," Cortana admitted. "I mean, I had suddenly gotten to know you better via a fragment upload. I honestly would've preferred a more natural start to said friendship. In my line of work though you make due with what you got. And what I got was a foundation to something I felt like exploring. What I found was a near kindred spirit."

"Kindred?"

Cortana nodded pleasantly.

"Don't tell Chief this," she said with a sly grin, "but I do actually appreciate him. He's... important to me. He isn't very similar to me and my thought processes though. No surprise there. But Tali, we have a wavelength, a connection, and one that isn't entirely based on some lines of code installed into me. It's something tangible, real. I know it because I've worked with you, struggled with you, we've fought together in many ways. Why else would I be here now, trying to help you out of this? I care, Tali, and I'm not the only one."

Tali was now the one to stand motionless, her mind processing everything.

"But... after everything..."

"We all say and do things we're not proud of," Cortana assured her. "We all make mistakes, scream things we didn't mean, fall flat now and then. But none of that makes you a monster. None of that means you have to let it weigh you down. It just means you can be better. Can you honestly say you're the same person today that you were before you even met Halsey? Or Shepard? Me?"

Tali knew the answer, she had always known it. Perhaps she had forgotten it, that was all. But she could still see the shadows around her, taunting her. They weren't going away.

"I still don't know how to stop this," she exclaimed sadly.

"Reject its hold, Tali," Cortana informed her. "Taq says that the psychic scarring the Flood left you gave this thing an opening. But it's still a defensive mechanism for your subconscious. You can use it against him. You have to focus on something good, something wonderful. Its hold has to be weakening already, you just need to starve it, then you can kill it."

Tali didn't know if this would work, but she was willing to try. She let her mind drift into the black, trying to shut everything out. Even as the voice kept speaking.

" **Idiot. This won't work. I've already won. Memory or not, I am still more powerful. I am the ceaseless void and you are a worm wiggling to reach the sun! You are nothing! You have always been nothing!"**

Tali concentrated harder, the voice suddenly growing silent as her mind centered on the good, the thing she had let herself forget, the anti-venom to the poison of hate this monster had filled her with. She thought of her first envirosuit, Auntie Rann's visits and the gifts she brought, the days she spent with her mother, engineering class, her friends in the fleet, the few but still meaningful times when her father spent with her.

That was the start, but then a flood proceeded. She remembered the Council being forced to listen to a quarian, of all species, about her discovery of Saren's crimes. How the original _Normandy_ crew. especially Chief Adams, welcomed her openly, despite not being human. Garrus' stupid jokes. Kasumi sharing her favorite poets and classic books with her. Chakwas going out of her way to get her those immuno-boosters. Her first night with Shepard. Legion showing her what the Geth truly were. Talking tech with Kat. Her first real meeting with Cortana. It all just kept coming.

She had almost thought she was out of tears, but she was able to feel a single one left. One of joy this time, not pain. And that was when she felt it, her mind focusing on one little spot in her head, one that wasn't adhering to her own thoughts.

That was when she struck.

"Get! Out! Of My! HEAD!"

* * *

Tali's eyes opened, but she wasn't in the engine room anymore, she was in a large sickly green place. It smelled rotten, decaying. Tendrils were sprawled around the room, shimmering with the ugly glow of green that resonated everywhere as they climbed up the walls and crept along the floor. At the center there was something familiar, a form she had seen in shadow. It was not as terrifying anymore though. It was broken, dying, moaning, it's many arms limp and struggling. The elongated neck turned to show a broken, rotted face of what Tali assumed was the Precursor.

Correction, it wasn't the Precursor. He or she or it had died long ago. This was just dark echo, a thing that had stuck around like a bad credit chit. Refusing to leave, clinging to its little bit of existence.

"Ceaseless void, huh?" Tali asked. "Say hello to the worm, then."

" **This is not possible!"** It screeched. **"Your kind are nothing! We made those like you! We unmade those like you! You are a plaything! You are refuse! You are ours!"**

"That was a long time ago," Tali informed it. "Now? Now no one even remembers you."

The creature seemed to laugh at that.

" **You reminded them for us."**

Tali shook her head.

"No, I revealed to them how sad and pathetic you've become," she declared. "This is all that's left of you. Some dying nightmare preying on the weak. You still think you're a God after all this?"

" **We are power, even in death."**

"No, you're just a bad memory that needs to be forgotten," Tali exclaimed, reaching down to pull a pistol out of nowhere.

The Precursor creature shuddered in anger and, maybe, just a little fear. Tali smirked at that. Now it knew how it felt.

" **This changes nothing,"** the creature declared defiantly. **"A voice still spoke to you on the ring, it was simply not mine. Another is out there, one who speaks to the countless graves and there is no escape from him! For I know him now! He has become one with all of death! He has transcended the coil to become immortal! To become our will! Our resolve! Our mind."**

"And we'll defeat him too," Tali told him bluntly. "We, as in my crew, my friends, us. If I can overcome you, he's nothing, whoever he is."

The shadow of the Precursor just laughed uproariously.

" **You do not know what lies ahead. Your tomb is awaiting and he is your true Shepherd. You will see him soon. I promise it. And when you do... you will wish it was I who consumed your mind. You will die screaming, alone, broken, doomed."**

Tali raised the gun to the creature's head and pressed her finger against the trigger.

"You first."

She pulled the trigger. She watched the shadow creature's head explode and the room itself vanish in a burst of black.

* * *

Tali awoke to find herself back in the _Normandy's_ med bay, not strapped down this time thankfully. She could tell where she was by the beeping machines and white walls. She wasn't sure at first what to think, her mind was a complete mess. As it sorted itself, she recalled what had happened, part of her hoped it was a bad dream. She knew it wasn't. Mostly because of who she saw sitting at the edge of her bed.

Miranda, of all people was at her bed side. To her credit, she didn't seem angry or anything, not happy, but Miranda was hardly ever happy anyhow. She didn't have a weapon either, so that was good. If Tali was being honest she wouldn't have blamed her at all for not being here, given what had happened. She might not have been herself, but Tali knew everything had come from her in a way.

As Miranda looked to her, noticing she was awake, she reacted plainly.

"Hey."

Of all the things Miranda could've started with, a friendly greeting was the last thing Tali expected.

"You're probably wondering why I'm here of all people."

"A little, yes," Tali admitted.

Miranda nodded, relenting perhaps that it was probably the first thing she should've addressed.

"Shepard wanted to be here, Garrus too," she explained. "But, well, they got called up to discuss things with the UNSC higher ups. You know, clear up matters."

That made sense, given everything that had happened over the previous night. She was going to have to make a ton of calls and apologies and attempts at pleading for forgiveness like... oh no. Tali looked to the bed beside her and saw no one.

"What about Kas?" She asked worriedly. "And Legion... where's...?

"Don't worry, she's fine, they're fine," Miranda assured. "A bad bump, but Mordin is taking care of Kasumi now. She's in her room last I heard, but she'll be here shortly I think. Legion came back online a while ago. They don't remember much after you shut them down, but that's it. Chakwas is busy helping with some other minor injuries, but nothing serious..."

"All my fault too, I imagine," Tali reasoned, her voice depressed in tone.

Miranda looked like she was biting a bit at her inner cheek, but as ever she remained on topic.

"They wanted to be sure you wouldn't be alone if you woke up," she continued. "I volunteered to stay with you."

"That still doesn't really answer my question," Tali told her. "In fact it raises a ton more."

Lawson sighed at that, as if to say 'I'm getting to that', but it didn't sound too annoyed.

"Truth be told, I wanted to be here regardless," she stated plainly. "While you might think all of this is on you, and a lot of people are going to tell you it's the relic's fault... which, I'll get to in a minute, just let me finish."

Miranda was still quick on draw despite her ordeal. Tali wasn't entirely sure if she was grateful for that, she still didn't know where this was going after all.

"Despite everything," she began to relent. "I feel a larger part of the blame can be placed on me. I was the one who put you in quarantine. I convinced Shepard to do it at a time he was emotionally vulnerable and I didn't even realize I was doing it. I... just hope you don't blame him for it."

Tali was a bit shocked at Miranda taking some blame, mostly because Tali didn't entirely feel like she deserved said blame. Given everything that had happened, Miranda did have good reason to lock her up. She ended up being proven right in a way.

"You... you were doing what you thought was best," Tali tried to tell her. "It hurt, but-"

"No, I was reacting out of fear," Miranda quickly corrected. "Fear that one of our best people was losing herself and I didn't know why. My instinct said danger to ship, isolate. I didn't take into consideration that we needed more information before acting. That was my mistake. We could've avoided all of this had I just given things more thought. Specifically, thought to your feelings."

Tali was trying to suss out all the little tidbits of Miranda's words just there. The one that stood out though was "one of our best people," that was flashing in her brain like a big neon sign. It left her near speechless for a moment or two before she could fully process it.

"One of our best?" She finally managed to squeak out.

Miranda just nodded.

"Tali, you need to understand a few things," she continued succinctly. "My entire childhood was spent trying to live up to the expectations of someone who at the time I felt was worth it. He was not. My father only really cared about HIS legacy. Not about me. I was just a thing to him. Nothing I ever did was ever good enough, I had to be better in every conceivable way because building me perfect wasn't perfect enough. When I finally realized how little I meant to him, I broke away and never looked back. And I never wondered much about what effect it had had on me for the longest time, but in a way I always knew."

Tali looked at Lawson curiously, as the woman turned in her seat to look at her directly.

"I ended up expecting better of everyone around me," she stated, her tone less cold and calculating, more earnest than Tali had ever heard before. "I expected, if not perfection, the aspiration to be. In every thing I did after leaving my father, I was convinced I had to force people to aspire to my standards. I didn't think too much about their feelings, because what mattered was results. Not if people liked me. It's how I ran Lazarus, it's how I operated in the field. It's... it's partially why me and Jacob never worked out."

"I'm... I'm sorry to-"

Miranda shook her head to silence the quarian.

"I'm not looking for pity, I'm trying to explain myself," she informed her. "It's not so much an excuse as it is just me laying myself bare. I'm not an easy person to get along with. Not many people are able to get close to me, it's why I was hesitant about getting involved in my sister's life. I didn't want to bother with something that wasn't completely professional or burden her with my own concerns. A personal life just complicates things at times. I prefer to be more picky with such matters."

Tali still wondered where this was going, but she knew better at this point than to ask aloud.

"I'd be lying if I said there were never any thoughts of any kind concerning Shepard as more than... well, as a Commander," she relented. "But I never acted on them because I felt such relations complicate things. Again, Jacob was one of those incidents that proved it. I was completely turned off the idea when the Illusive Man suggested I pursue it though."

"You... I think you tried to explain this before," Tali recalled wearily.

Miranda confirmed it by nodding.

"He wanted me to try and seek out his companionship," she clarified, her memory of the events not sounding all that comfortable to relive. "He felt if he had a personal stake in me, Shepard would be more willing to cooperate with Cerberus. He'd come over to our side, conduct matters in line with the Cerberus agenda, so to speak. When I said that seemed to be pushing mission parameters outside my agreed upon guidelines, he reminded me... I had done it before."

Miranda tried to remain stoic, but her body language said volumes. That memory hurt her, specifically of the Illusive Man telling her that. It touched a nerve that was raw and damaging, one she had trouble reconciling. Tali could only imagine why, but she well enough not to ask at this point.

"He dropped the subject when I refused further," Miranda continued. "But he told me to keep it in mind. Again, I'd be lying if I claimed not to consider the possibilities, but Shepard made it clear at one point how not interested he was. Something I accepted and was rather relieved to hear, honestly."

"Are you telling me all this to make feel less threatened?" Tali asked, wondering if this was the entire purpose behind this conversation.

Miranda shook her head.

"I'm telling you this because I realize that's your animosity towards me," she corrected. "Not the root, but a rather significant sticking point. You're not the first woman to feel threatened by me and I suppose I shrugged the matter off like I had with others. I didn't particularly care much if you hated me or felt threatened, mainly because I felt it would make you work harder in the long run. Force you to be competitive in your work against me, prove your worth against a rival, even if that rival didn't consider you one in kind."

It made a particular kind of sense, especially for Miranda. Motivation via using the emotions of others, misinterpreted as they were, to the benefit of the crew. And Tali had admit, it worked to a degree. She did try her best to prove herself, to outdo Miranda's expectations.

"I never considered your feelings on the matter though," Miranda continued, sounding apologetic, if not sorry. "I decided they didn't matter, and in fact it was good for the whole ship if you didn't like me. That pushed you. That drove you in a sense. It made an already great engineer better. The fact remains though, I didn't consider what it was doing to you mentally. The more I pushed, the more it played into your interpretation of who I was, your expectations of what I was trying to do, the more I antagonized things. And that came to a head today."

"That doesn't excuse what I did," Tali stated firmly. "I attacked you, threatened you. If you didn't hate me back then, I won't blame you for hating me now."

Miranda just chuckled.

"Tali, I can't work up enough motivation to hate you," she informed the quarian with a slight smirk. "How can I? Like I said, you're one of the best engineers out there and in a way I admire that. I even admire how you were able to find the flaws in the design of the SR-2 and improve the ship overall. I admire that you've stuck with this Slipspace project of yours for as long as you have and you've made more progress than expected. I even admire how people seem to like you near instantly just by being you."

"Well, people like you, I'm sure," Tali tried to argue. "I mean, Kasumi hangs out with you at times. Jacob trusts you. So does Shepard and-"

"Kasumi is practically friends with everyone aboard, but you two are closest," Miranda quickly corrected. "Jacob is a professional friendship, same with Shepard. I have people who are friends, Tali, but I have to try harder to turn things off while I'm around them. I have to remind myself at times I'm not trying to manipulate people or get something specific out of them. That's what being a Cerberus agent for years did to me, honestly. That's what being me is."

Tali could hardly believe it, Miranda was admitting flaws. Problems she had with herself. She wasn't playing up the perfect card. And she was admitting to her, one of the people who didn't like her in the slightest.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Tali asked confused. "Do... you want to be friends? Set the record straight?"

"All I want is you to know the truth," Miranda explained earnestly. "About me, about how I feel about you. I can live with us not being friends, Tali. I'm not looking for us to be pals. But... I can't keep letting you think I'm out to destroy you either. That's wrong. An Executive Officer should motivate the crew, but not become an antagonist to them. That was a line I shouldn't have crossed."

Tali looked thoughtfully at Lawson, trying to read her. Trying to figure out what, if anything, there was behind the heartfelt words. Some other purpose, motive. She could find nothing but truth.

"In a lot of ways, you know, I envy you a bit," Miranda claimed. "You had a better relationship with your father than I ever could."

Tali laughed a bit at that.

"Our relationship was a mess," Tali claimed. "Utterly and completely."

"Mine was orderly, controlled, fixed and artificial," Miranda stated. "The fact yours was complicated made it real. More real than mine. Your father was willing to have his name be forever destroyed just to get you a house of your own on a world you could only dream of. Mine never would've even risked a tenth of that much."

"Didn't make him perfect," Tali shrugged. "Not even close."

Miranda leaned over to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Whatever faults he clearly had, he loved you," Miranda told her firmly. "That's more than mine ever did. And you know I'm telling you the truth on that, because you know I don't care enough to lie to your face just to comfort you."

Tali couldn't help but smile warmly at the statement. She repressed going further than that. She didn't want to ruin the moment with more sentiments. For once, she wanted to let Miranda have her say on this. As Lawson pulled away she stood back up.

"In a way, you know, what happened tonight was probably a blessing in disguise," she explained, straightening her uniform. "After all, who knows what problems a semi-living memory of a dead ancient god-like alien being could've caused down the line. Something tells me that would've snuck up on us in a far worse way eventually."

Tali looked up concerned.

"So... it's..."

"Dead? Well, if you can you ever call a memory alive to begin with," Miranda shrugged unassumingly . "I mean, Taq explains it better than I can and it's still confusing as hell. All I know, is the damned thing isn't talking anymore. Cortana went over it after you passed out in the engine room and called off the lockdown. No more signal, nothing talking. Whatever you did purged the relic of whatever that thing was. It shouldn't be an issue anymore."

And that was something to truly take comfort in, as far as Tali was concerned.

"So, congratulations there," Miranda told her. "You said you'd kill it and you did."

"I'm not sure that's going to be of much comfort for some," Tali replied depressingly. "Given everything that's happened..."

"They'll forgive you," Miranda assured her. "You have that effect on people, honestly. If I can let what happened slide, most everyone else can probably let the matter go in time. Although, I might suggest starting with Boz from BBR when you can. He's... still shaken up a little, from the sound of it."

Tali could agree with that. Whatever else the Jackals were, Boz had not deserved what she put him through. Hopefully, he'd forgive her. Right now, she just wanted to know if the others had too. As if to answer her question, the door to the med bay opened, revealing Kasumi, Garrus, Legion and, of course, Shepard, all standing there looking relieved. Miranda got out of the way as they made their way to the bedside.

Tali was quick to sit up and hug Shepard. Nothing much was said at first, as Kasumi and Garrus soon joined the hug themselves. Legion remained out of it, looking a bit perplexed it seemed on whether or not it was appropriate to join in.

"I'm sorry," she told them all. "I'm so sorry."

"You weren't yourself," Shepard assured her. "We're just happy you're safe now."

"Kas, I never meant to-"

"No worries, okay?" Kasumi said, cutting her off. "Shit happens. Like Shepard said, what matters is you're back."

"That doesn't take back everything," Tali explained. "A lot of the things that happened, they came from me, even if they're buried deep. They're all still there."

"You'll make the requisite apologies and gain back the respect in time," Garrus assured. "Might take time, but Holland assured us he's going to make it clear to everyone that the threat is neutralized and you're clear."

That was good to hear, even if it wasn't a guarantee that everything would be instantly okay by tomorrow. At least everyone would know what happened and why.

"Are you operating within peak parameters, Creator Tali'Zorah?" Legion finally asked.

"Getting there I think," Tali acknowledged. "But Legion, I... I can't stress how deeply sorry I am for what happened. That was wrong, in every way. There's no excuse."

"The influence within the relic was the primary cause of your actions," Legion claimed. "It had convinced you of an illogical danger and that we were a threat to stopping it. An error in your software caused by a virus in your code. The incident was not entirely your fault and we are convinced these specific circumstances will not arise again. If we might make a suggestion, however. Stay away from any other similar artifacts in the future until a proper study is made."

"I think I can manage that," Tali promised.

It was then Miranda turned to leave. Tali saw her start go. She couldn't just let her though, not without one final word from her.

"Miranda."

Lawson stopped and turned to Tali.

"You're... you're one of our best people too," she told her. "Never forget that, okay?"

Miranda only smiled lightly and then left through the doors. To say the rest of the group was a bit stunned was an understatement of course.

"Where did that come from?" Garrus asked.

"Just... something that needed to be said, I guess," Tali explained innocently. "That's all."

* * *

In Shepard's cabin, Tali hung up on a private call as she slumped back on the sofa. Shepard soon came into the room himself, walking over to the quarian and taking a seat just across from her. He was already dressed down, preparing for that night's sleep cycle.

"Daniels and Donnelly say they can handle the engine room for the time being until you're ready," he told her. "The Engineers will lend them a hand. Although they assured me they'll still send you reports, you know, so you can keep up with everything."

"Good, I can use the time to get a fresh perspective on the slipspace drive," Tali told him. "Maybe taking a step back from it will be good for me and the project."

Shepard nodded in agreement and noticed the open omni-tool.

"Just finish up a call?" He asked.

"Boz," Tali explained. "I told him that I was sorry and that what I did had no excuse and that I wasn't in my right mind. Eventually he just said it was cool. Something about being half drunk at the time anyway and he barely remembers most of it."

"So you think you're square with him then?" Shepard asked.

"I think I'm back to a position of not being the source of his nightmares," Tali explained. "I'm going to have to work a little harder on this to get back to the reasonably liked tier I was with him before. Maybe send him a few quarian rock albums?"

Shepard chuckled a bit.

"Quarians have rock bands?" He laughed.

"Technically it's more what you'd call electro-punk, but yeah," Tali answered. "If he starts playing some of those on the air I'll know I'm back in his good graces. Everyone else is going to be a bit harder, I imagine."

"You'll get there," Shepard assured her. "Don't worry."

Tali closed her omni-tool and let her head fall back against the sofa.

"No headaches, no stress, no creepy visions and no lost time," she exhaled happily. "It all feels like I woke from a really long, bad sleep."

"I knew you'd come back to us," Shepard told her, placing a hand on hers, intertwining his five fingers with her three. "I'm sorry for letting them put you in that room."

"Don't," Tali assured him. "We all did what we thought was best. We were all wrong. I won't say it doesn't hurt... but there it is."

Shepard expression turned downward as he moved in closer.

"Has... anything changed?" He asked tepidly.

"I don't think you can go through this and not change somewhat," Tali answered wistfully. "But... if you want an answer to what you're really asking..."

Tali placed her head on his shoulder, moving over closer to his legs.

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Good point," Shepard said placing his arm around her. A few seconds passed as he massaged her other arm, before asked one more question. "How much of what that... thing showed you, do you remember?"

"Bits and pieces," she told him. "I know the Precursors were before the Forerunners, that they became the Flood, but I don't know how they did it or what made the Forerunners turn on them. There's so many blanks in the history. I think a lot of it was lost when I killed the memory."

"So you don't even remember the coordinates it was trying to feed you either?" He asked.

Tali shook her head.

"Never bothered to write it down," she admitted. "I was not in my best frame of mind after all. I can't help but think it was trying to lead us somewhere. Obviously nowhere good. It... it claimed though, just before it died, that it wasn't the same thing from the swamp. That it wasn't the same voice from then."

Shepard looked at her concerned.

"Do you believe it?" He asked her.

"I don't know what to believe," Tali admitted. "I don't even really remember what the voice I heard in the swamp said all that much. It fluctuated between people I knew and some kind of monstrous roar, nothing was ever clear. But, that thing claimed to know who it was. He just never said who exactly."

"Well, hopefully it was all just another lie then," Shepard tried to assure her, holding the quarian close. "Just another manipulation, trying to mess with you."

"Maybe," Tali relented, looking up to the skylight. "But I still can't shake the feeling. The thought there are more Flood out there. We know now that they are the remains of the closest thing to Gods this universe ever had. I can't believe they're all dead. Not for certain. Nothing like that is killed so easily."

"Well for some reason the Forerunners stored some Flood on Halo," Shepard reminded her. "And, if what we heard from Guilty Spark was accurate, there are other rings. I'd like to think they only made that mistake once, but..."

Tali just nuzzled closer to Wade.

"Something to deal with when we have to," she told him. "Right now, I'm done with ancient memories. I'd... rather make new ones."

Shepard grinned softly at that as Tali climbed into his lap. Without another word, Shepard picked her up and carried her towards the bed. Allowing the thoughts of dead, ancient things to vanish from their minds.

* * *

 **A dream of a corpse has died. Its song silenced in a flash. Its hatred snuffed. Beautiful eternity beyond its grasp. It touched us, but failed to arrive. A trifle thing. A loss of flesh for but a brief flicker of time. For I am the grave. I am forever. All will march towards me, all will come unto my sanctum and behold true salvation. The call of the grave can never be silenced. In time, the tomb will welcome them and once there... they will sing of victory. Sing of everlasting peace. Sing... of the glory of the grave.**

* * *

 **AN:** Apologies for this being so late. Writing the next chapter was more of a chore than it should've been. However, I've finally gotten it all down and I'm ready to finally post the ending to this arc of Remnants. I hope it was worth the wait. These three chapters represent some of what I think is my best work as a writer yet and I can only hope at the moment to top it in the future. I truly believe that and I hope you've all enjoyed this disturbing, exhausting, but with any luck still uplifting, little slice of Tali's personal character growth with some world building on the side. It was a joy to write and now you all get to see it in full bloom. You can expect BBR's related chapter to come soon, hopefully. I'm still going to be working on the Reach chapters and then some more of Liara's chapters.

Anyway, if you want more information on this chapter, feel free to check out my profule for some notes on it. Also, there should be some new audio files from HellFox up there along with it. Do be sure to give them a listen and drop him a line or two if you enjoyed them to tell him how great you found them. He deserves all the credit for putting so much work and time and effort into all of that stuff. He's a great guy, a fantastic creator.

Anyway, see you next time for Reach.


	17. Return to Reach

**Chapter 16: Return to Reach**

 _War would End if the Dead could Return_

 _-Stanley Baldwin_

The _Ascendant Justice_ , along with its miniature fleet, pulled out of slipspace just outside the boundary of the Episilon Eridani System. Given the nature of the mission at hand, it would be unwise to arrive any closer to their intended target. For the next few hours, the carrier coasted towards its objective, intent on keeping a low profile. The Covenant were likely still in the system, still prowling for human stragglers. It was unlikely there were any humans left to kill, but the Covenant were always very thorough as far as genocide was concerned. They didn't move on unless they were sure they got everyone. Considering no one knew for sure how fast news of the _Justice's_ capture had traveled through the Covie battlenet, it was probably best to keep out of sight as long as possible. Cortana said she could disguise the Carrier's transponder as another ship, but for now it was best to play it safe. Slow and steady was the name of the game for now.

Commander Shepard was on the bridge with the Master Chief, alongside the rest of the Spartans. They were eagerly awaiting for the fated moment to arrive. When the sensors would lock on to why they were here in the first place. Everything on the Bridge was deathly silent as the Carrier moved through the sea of black, edging closer to its final goal. Soon enough, it came into view on the screens. Chief stared at the image with a sense of clear reverence and foreboding.

Reach, the once proud human colony, was now a withered, burnt out husk. The results of the Covenant endgame for all human worlds, glassing. They had methodically burnt the surface of the world to ash. It was not enough to kill the humans, they had to wipe out any evidence that they had existed at all. It was the only way to "cleanse" the galaxy in their mind.

Commander Shepard kept watching Chief as the Spartan glared at the image. He could only imagine what he was feeling. Reach meant many things to different people in this fleet of theirs. For Shepard, he saw it as one of his more hopeless failures. No matter how much they fought, no matter what they did, Reach's fate had been sealed. The _Normandy_ , for all it was worth, was not enough to turn the tide.

For Chief though, it was more than failure though. It was about a loss of everything. The planet he called home for most of his life, yes, but more importantly in his mind, it was the place where what was left of his family had died.

The other Spartan IIs, the soldiers Chief had fought alongside for decades in a war with seemingly no end. Shepard had family, blood relatives, his mother most prominently. Chief only had his fellow abducted child soldiers to rely on, to bleed with, to fight with. Now, he clung to the hope that they weren't dead. That somehow, the rest of his team was alive. That he and Linda would reunited with them. At the moment, seeing the charred remains of Reach on the screens, that hope seemed all but dashed in an instant.

"As expected," Haverson observed. "Glassed. Completely and utterly. I'd be surprised if there was anything alive left on the surface."

"Assessment, Lieutenant?" Holland requested.

"We're here now, sir. No sense in jumping out so quickly," he stated. "We can still observe Covenant fleet operations and figure out their potential movements. Perhaps Cortana can monitor their communications as well. That way this won't be a total waste."

"What about the relic?" Shepard asked. "It could still be down there."

"Or the Covies already recovered, Commander," Haverson cautioned. "Monitoring their communications should confirm it one way or the other."

Shepard turned to Chief, but the Spartan seemed to show sign of emotion. He didn't look defeated, perhaps he was still holding out hope. Linda was behind him, showing no outward emotion either, but her position close to him was a clear sign of an attempt to ease his mind. The same couldn't be said of Kat or Jun. Their helmets were off for one, so they were instantly easier to read. Both of them looked sullen, crestfallen. Kat's brow especially was sunk into a deep contemplative stare.

Shepard knew that look, he had shared a similar one on his face after Elysium, after Virmire and after Horizon. It was when you mentally replayed everything in your head, when you tried to think of what you could've done differently, how you could've prevented this. In the end, you come up with nothing, but you never really accept that you couldn't have done anything. You always think you could've done more, been more. That you could've won.

But in that moment of loss, there was a sudden light, as Cortana up on the dashboard.

"Sirs," she spoke directly to Holland and Haverson. "You may want to hold off on declaring this whole planet glassed. The Covenant appear to have missed a spot."

Cortana pulled up a zoomed in scan of a large portion of the planet, about the size of a small city, somewhere in the wilderness. It had not been touched. Not a single speck of green grass or brown soil had been scorched. It had been preserved, spared.

"That is... highly unusual," Haverson acknowledged.

"Only one reason the Covenant wouldn't glass part of a planet," Holland observed. "There's something there they don't want destroyed."

"The relic," Shepard quickly filled in for them. "That's our search area."

"My thoughts exactly," Cortana confirmed. "With what we know, it's the best explanation as to why this area has been left untouched. They're concerned about destroying the relic during the glassing. And if they had already found it, then they wouldn't have left it like it is."

So there was still a chance. Shepard looked to Chief, his posture changed. Hope had been answered, emboldened by resolve.

"Chances are they've had more than enough time to search the area," he warned. "They could be closing in on the relic. We need to move quickly."

"Agreed," Holland replied. "Then we need to start laying down a plan. Haverson, bring Taq in here. Inform her the relic is planetside and her recovery mission is a go."

Haverson nodded and contacted the kig-yar female over his omni-tool. Not but a minute later was she rushing through the doors and over to the holographic screen.

"We got a fix?" She asked frantically.

"We have a search area," Haverson explained. "We need your help in shrinking it down a bit."

Taq examined the search area, her eyes peering over the untouched landscape. Keeping her talons under her beak, her look was thoughtful, tempered. Her eyes moved to a single blip on the map.

"What's this structure?" She asked.

Haverson gave it a moments look and quickly figured out what it really was.

"That would be Castle Base," he stated. "No record of any Forerunner structures near there, at least to my knowledge."

"Hmm, dead then," Taq sighed. "Did any of you ever detect catacombs or hollow spaces nearby?"

"There are a few, standard seismic scans pre-construction," Haverson replied. "Nothing we've mapped extensively, again, at least to my knowledge. It never seemed to be an issue before and it's not even directly under the building."

"Not really important," Taq stated. "Well, the catacombs are, just not whether or not they're under the building. Point is this is going to make it more difficult. I'm afraid other methods will be needed."

That got everyone's attention, especially Holland's. He stepped behind her, an inquisitive look on his face.

"What methods?" He asked.

"If you knew of a possible Foreruner site in this area, I could formulate a manageable search perimeter," Taq explained. "Right now? I got a tunnel system that stretches who knows how wide. I need, well, the other Relic."

Holland audibly grumbled in annoyance. Taq got his meaning pretty quickly.

"I don't like it, but that's what we're stuck with," Taq stated. "Trust me, I already get your concerns."

"We risked a lot to keep that Amplifier out of Covenant hands," Holland reminded her. "Now you're putting it at risk again by bringing it down there."

"It works like a map as well as a signal device," Taq explained. "It can hone in on the second relic's energy signature, allowing us to track it down efficiently instead of wandering around aimlessly for who knows how long trying to find it. It's our best bet if you wanna get out of here with both relics."

"What happens if the Covenant find you?" Haverson asked. "Then they'll have two artifacts, instead of the one."

"A risk worth taking to make sure they don't get either," Taq argued. "Besides, isn't that what they're for?"

Taq pointed to the Spartans, Master Chief standing at attention as she did.

"Sirs, we can handle this," he assured. "If we stay under the radar and move efficiently, we can get off planet with both relics in hand."

"And if complications arise?" Holland asked.

"We'll do what Spartans always do, adapt and improvise," Chief answered. "One way or another, the Covenant will not get either Relic."

Holland took a moment to consider, but eventually he relented.

"I've always had confidence in the abilities of Spartans," he confessed. "If you believe you can accomplish this mission with minimum difficulty, then we entrust it to you and Commander Shepard to get it done. Extract the Relic from the planet, Chief. Everything else is secondary."

Holland made a point about that "secondary" part, Shepard could see that. The Colonel wasn't stupid, he knew why Chief wanted to go down there. He wanted to get back to Reach to find his team, or at least what happened to them. Now Holland had made it clear, Relic first and possibly only. To his credit, the Spartan just saluted, accepting the command. When Holland turned to Shepard, he was quick to answer back before the old man even spoke.

"I've already selected my team," he assured. "We'll provide support however we can."

"Good, let's wrap this up quickly and get out of system with the Covenant's prize," Holland ordered. "We don't want to be here longer than we have to. Reliving old wounds is not something any soldier wants to deal with."

He looked towards Kat as he said this, giving a slight, reassuring look. Kat only responded with a simple nod of her head and placed her helmet on in readiness. Jun did the same soon after, both their expressions now fully masked and guarded.

After Chief picked Cortana out of the console, he and his team turned to leave. Haverson was already moving to leave the Bridge as Shepard filed out with the Spartans and Taq. Wherever he was going was beyond his purview, but it was far from the most important matter on Shepard's mind. Master Chief's peace of mind was of greater concern. After hearing about the catacombs, it didn't take much to figure out what the Spartan was thinking.

"Could your team have gotten in cover in time?" Shepard asked.

"It's your best chance of survival during a planet glassing," Chief explained. "They'd have headed there the second the plasma beams started scorching the surface."

"It would be the first thing Kelly would think of," Linda added.

"You know the chance is still remote though?" Shepard asked.

"It's better than it was yesterday," Chief replied. "No matter what happens, we get answers today. One way or another."

* * *

Zek stood outside Haverson's office with Retz. He was eagerly pacing around, frantic about what they had been called here for. Retz remained as calm as ever, but that was only because he was better at hiding things. Zek wanted to get back to the Bridge and wait for updates on the relic Taq was hunting. Just because he wasn't being allowed to get anywhere near Reach for the moment didn't mean he couldn't keep up with the ground mission. This was, after all, the next leg in the quest for the Astral Cutlass. What in the vast empty black void could be more important than that? Important enough for Haverson to call him down here? It was enough to make one paranoid.

"I hate not knowing more than this jerk," Zek grumbled. "I don't like it. He's too damn fucking sneaky, Retz. Like you, but with less of a personality."

"You need to relax, sir," Retz tried to placate him. "Going in there nervous is only going to give him more satisfaction than he deserves."

"But does he know anything?" Zek asked worriedly. "Is he trying to entrap us? Put us over a barrel? What's his angle? I don't like not knowing this little before a business negotiation. Assuming this even is one."

"Haverson is a bureaucratic stooge of the restrictive human governmental system," Retz reminded him, forcing his friend to stop pacing around by physically holding him back. "He likes this kind of bigger than you, constricting position of power. He plays these sorts of mind games in order to mess with our heads and freak us out. Standard business tactic, he's making us sweat. We cannot let him see it."

Zek seemed to calm down, but at that moment the doors to the office opened up. Taking his friend's words to heart, Zek straightened up, smoothed his quills a bit and walked into the room with Retz by his side. Haverson was already at his small desk, a portable computer open in front of him. He was typing away at something, but he spared a glance to look up at the pirates. Zek wondered if he was actually typing something or if this was just more of the minds games as Retz had suggested.

"Zek, Retz, I'm glad you could make it," he greeted finally, moving his chair a bit to look directly at them. "We need to discuss something."

"Guessing this isn't about the relic though," Zek reasoned. "We're not on that mission. You said we'd be a complication."

"We're keeping the ground team small in general to remain covert," Haverson reminded him astutely. "We don't need to risk more personnel than needed right now. Four Spartans with Shepard's team supporting them, plus Taq, is more than sufficient for the mission's needs. Especially considering what we ran into last time."

"So then why are we here?" Retz asked.

"Because I have another mission in mind," Haverson explained plainly. "There were more than a few reasons to come back to this system. After checking in with our long range sensors, I confirmed that there is indeed another tangible objective we must secure while we're here."

After clicking a few buttons on his console, a holographic image of a planet emerged over the desk. It was not Reach though, it was a Gas Giant, one of the two located in this system from the looks of it. Before Zek could even ask what this was about, the image closed in on the planet's ring, getting a close-up of one of the many rocks and icy debris that made up the celestial body. Lodged inside the floating hunk of frozen over stone appeared to be some kind of structure. Retz figured out what it was instantly.

"A spy station," he observed. "Cleverly hidden in the various bits and ends that make of the ring of the gas giant. How very stealthy of you."

"We built it from a larger than usual bit of space rock we hollow out and placed in orbit among the other debris," Haverson elaborated. "It was the size of a small building so putting a station in there was easy. It is unmanned, its purpose to act as part of our early warning system and intercept enemy comm-traffic to coordinate defenses."

"And you didn't turn it off when you left?" Zek asked jokingly. "Very irresponsible. Think of the power bill."

Haverson audibly groaned.

"Solar energy panels, carefully disguised as ice formations," he informed the pirate. "We designed it to be autonomous. That's the point. Even if we wanted to shut it off, the option became untenable once Reach's final fall began in earnest. There was no time to initiate a shutdown code or standby mode. It has been working overtime since we left the system."

"And you want all he juicy information it has no doubt been gathering from the Covenant since then," Retz reasoned. "Fleet movements, weapon deployment, future operations, supply chains, everything you can use to hurt them."

"As you and Taq have mentioned before, knowledge is valuable," Haverson reminded him.

"So why haven't you started downloading it already?" Zek asked, suspecting already what this was leading to.

"Failsafe installed concerning long term Winter Contingency plans," Haverson explained. "The system has to receive special codes every few hours in order to keep all processes open for transmission. If it doesn't get those codes the system locks every external connection out. Protecting itself from discovery, its findings stolen, or classified UNSC intelligence from being downloaded offsite. If we want the intel it has uncovered, we need to get onto the station and download everything off the servers manually."

Zek just sighed, he knew where this was going and it was already annoying him.

"You want us to do your grunt work then, is that it?" He asked knowingly. "Your stupid system locked you out and now we gotta play tech support."

"Please, don't be ridiculous," Haverson laughed. "I'm not going to let you aboard any ONI Surveillance Station for data recovery. Not alone anyway. The ODST squad I'm sending in are going to handle getting the intel. I want you to support their efforts."

Zek was confused by the request.

"Support? What do you mean support?" He questioned.

"I think he means he wants our ship in close range to keep an eye out for Covenant patrols," Retz answered. "As well as some ground units aboard the station itself as extra manpower."

"Astute as always, Retz," Haverson confirmed. "Sending the ODSTs in alone is too dangerous a prospect. A dozen things could go wrong and they'd need assistance. Besides, they're not as familiar with the Engineer they'll be taking along. We could use some people who know how their species functions concerning data collection and transfer."

Zek cocked his brow suspiciously.

"What happened to you don't trust the gas bags with sensitive intelligence?" Zek asked.

"Well over time it has become fairly clear the Engineers aren't malevolent or seeking to contact the Covenant," Haverson explained. "They've kept this ship running and this fleet maintained. They're trustworthy."

"And we're not," Zek said, deducing Haverson's tone. "Yet we're support apparently. Forgive me if I feel confused."

Haverson's demeanor turned more smug as he stared own the two pirates.

"Well, don't you want to be trusted?" He asked. "This would go a long way to proving you can be I imagine."

"Oh unggoy shit," Zek said exasperated. "What is your angle, dipshit? You think I'm fucking stupid or something?"

"I don't think you're stupid, Zek," Haverson assured. "If I did I'd be treating you a hell of a lot differently. I wouldn't even be considering this support mission idea in the first place. My feelings towards you are exasperation more than anything."

"It's mutual," Zek declared, crossing his arms. "Now, point please?"

Haverson stood up, leering over the desk as he did.

"You have been using UNSC resources for your own ends for far too long, Zek," Haverson informed him. "Our soldiers are not your muscle for your burgeoning criminal empire. You need to be reminded of that fact. So I'm cashing in one of the many favors you owe us by now."

"Favors? You got something out of every one of those missions we gave you," Zek argued. "Weapons, supplies, a friggin badass ancient artifact!"

"And every time we indulged you, we ended up getting more than what we bargained for and discovering that you had ulterior motives," Haverson reminded him. "Snarlbeak, your Syndicate pals, those damn crawlers, what happened to Tali. Oh, and most recently those space whales of yours. You're lucky Shepard even convinced me into accepting them."

"You can't put what happened to Ms. Zorah on us," Zek tried to argue.

"It was the result of us going after your relic," Haverson informed him. "Indirect as it may be, I still count it as a consequence of this partnership. And I still wonder if you did not benefit more than you claim to have from that little raid you made us go on at that Plasma Weapon facility."

Zek remained silent, and resolute. He did not want to take the risk of tipping his hand or looking suspicious. The last thing he needed was Haverson getting suspicious about their little sugar side project that was still working out its kinks. So he kept his beak shut, while Haverson kept ranting.

"The fact is, you owe us a few missions, Zek," Haverson explained rather bluntly. "You've had your fun making us act as your muscle, now you can play for us in kind. All you have to do is play backup for the ODSTs, make sure their mission succeeds, play by our rules for once. Is that so hard?"

Zek scoffed at the ONI agent. This human honestly thought he could be badgered and guilt tripped into doing his stupid spy work? Screw that and screw him. He didn't owe him nothing as far as he was concerned.

"Thing is, you guys wouldn't be alive if it weren't for me and you wouldn't have this cool Carrier if I hadn't convinced you to take it," he claimed. "I helped you get off Halo, so I feel that you owe me more before you can start claiming otherwise. Like, one favor for every human life I've saved."

Zek looked to Retz for his resolute support, but when he saw his friend's face, one of abject concern, he realized too late he was overplaying his hand. True to Retz's fears, Haverson looked very displeased at the moment.

"You are under the mistaken belief right now that I feel grateful to you, Zek," Haverson explained. "I supported the alliance because it was the most expedient means to survive. Not because yours and Varvok's offer was seen as some kind of godsend. I saw it as an opportunity to save the most lives possible and I took it. I would think you kig-yar would appreciate that kind of initiative."

"I don't really feel all that appreciated," Zek claimed. "Your boys aren't much more gracious than yourself."

"Like I said, placing them into harm's way constantly for your own ends erodes a level of trust in most," Haverson claimed. "You've been doing that since this alliance was formed."

"That does not mean I owe you anything in return," Zek claimed. "You still profitted from those ventures. You still got something out of it, at my expense. So why should I bother to put my ass on the line for something you clearly don't need me for. The ODSTs can handle this shit on their own."

"You have to admit, Haverson," Retz intercut. "You have more than enough of Drop Troopers to fill this mission's quota. More importantly, the _Normandy_ can be of better service in providing support than the _Serpent_. Especially among those rings."

"The _Normandy_ doesn't have to prove anything to me," Haverson stated. "I trust Shepard, even if we don't always agree on every little thing. He's pulled his weight around here. What have you done since helping us get off Halo save for putting us in danger because of your ambitions?"

"The relics?" Zek argued. "Stealing superweapons from Covies?"

"Something Taq technically brought us and was a byproduct of getting your pal Snarlbeak on our tails," Haverson stated once more. "I'm not going to belabor the point more, Zek. My mission needs a support team and I chose you despite everything. You should feel honored to a degree."

"Well I don't," Zek declared. "My boys don't play nursemaid to your xenophobic shock troops and we don't go on missions just because you say we owe you one. I'm not your soldier, Haverson. You can't make me do shit."

It all came down to principle in the end. Haverson had been a pain in the ass from day one of this thing. Maybe he did owe Shepard a favor. Maybe he even owed Holland. But Haverson? No way. He was not going to fold to this asshole just because he felt entitled to bark orders at him. They were done with that and he'd be damned if he was going to let this sangheili in naked ape clothing tell him what to do.

That was when the asshole dropped his endgame.

"Then you won't profit from the mission then," the Lieutenant stated simply.

Zek perched a brow in bewilderment.

"What profit?" Zek asked. "There's no profit here."

"Not that you know of yet," Haverson informed him. "But when we get our intel, we're going to have a flood of Covie secrets on our hands. As Retz mentioned. Weapons stores, fleet movements, convoys and shipping routes, all valuable things for a space pirate to have I imagine."

Zek narrowed his gaze in contempt.

"And you'll be more inclined to share if I help then?" Zek asked.

"Well I wouldn't really be under much obligation to give you anything if you didn't help," Haverson stated, sitting back down rather nonchalantly. "I mean, isn't that part of the Pirate code or something? My plunder is mine alone, my spoils my own. You don't get anything if you don't work for it."

Zek felt incensed. This guy, of all people, was using his own damn Pirate code against him? Seriously? The fuck gave him any right to make that bullshit claim? What the fuck gave him any belief he was allowed to appropriate their way of life and use it to his own ends? It pissed him off more than anything he could imagine. It was only through Retz did he manage to calm himself, as his friend pulled him aside for a small conference.

"Sir, we can't pass up a chance like this," he informed him. "It's too much potential windfall down the line. The crew would be pissed if they found out we rejected profit like this."

"And they'd be happy to have to work for this asshole to get it?" Zek growled.

"Even if we find nothing, this is not a good way to start a relationship with a client like the UNSC," Retz informed him. "We discussed this before, we'd have to do jobs for them at some point to build a relationship."

"I wanted it to be on our terms," Zek claimed. "This goes against every smart business plan in existence."

"You can't always expect to be on top in negotiations," Retz reminded him. "We take the hit to our pride for now, use what we can later."

Zek sighed, he knew his friend was right. Ignoring a chance at future profit would make him an unfit shipmaster. He had to go along with the offer, if only to do as Retz said. They needed to give the UNSC a reason to trust them, even if it was with stupid grunt work like this.

"Fine, Haverson," he relented, turning back to the Lieutenant. "We'll play your little nursemaid game."

"I thought you might," Haverson acknowledged. "I'm glad we could come to an agreement. Acting Captain McKay will be running the OP. I suggest you clear more of the mission details with her before departing."

"Whatever," Zek stated, refusing to salute. "You better come through with some good data for this."

"Don't worry, Zek, we'll all profit from this," Haverson assured as the two Jackals left, sounding immensely pleased with himself. "And in end, isn't profit all that matters to you anyway?"

Zek left, sheething anger boiling in his eyes. He was stuck in another stupid contract with the scant possibility he'd get something out of it. Of all people to come with a mission of their own, of all the humans aboard this ship he'd have taken a contract from, why did it have to be Haverson? Already the prospect of this mission made him want to throw up in disgust. It was almost like being back under the thumb of the Covenant. Worse still though, he had replaced the theocrats for a damn bureaucrat. At the moment, he couldn't honestly say which one he felt was worse.

* * *

Shepard's team had already assembled aboard the Phantom, preparing for departure, when Chief and the Spartans arrived. Shepard himself was on his omni-tool, talking, from the sound of it, to Tali. Given she was the only other expert in Forerunner tech around, it should've been a surprise she wasn't taking part in the mission. Of course, it was understandable why.

"I wish I could go down there," she told Shepard. "Considering Reach is where I got familiar with Forerunner tech in the first place..."

"I don't want you getting close to another one of these relics until we're sure it's safe this time," Shepard told her. "Besides, after what you went through, you need some time to recover."

"Just keep the channel open for me," she said. "If you find anything down there, anything at all, I can help you and Taq with it from here."

"I promise, we find anything and we'll conference you in with Taq directly," Shepard replied. "You rest for now, alright? I'll be back before you know it."

Tali just nodded and the two ended their call. Shepard then turned to face the Master Chief as he and the other Spartans walked up to the Phantom proper. They were all armed for covert ops, Linda and Chief specifically seemed to be carrying more ammo on their person than usual. Shepard was smart enough not to ask why, he already knew. It wasn't for them.

"EDI has already located a landing zone," he informed the Spartan leader. "As far as she can tell, there are very few Covenant patrols and the foliage provides a good amount of concealment. Perfect for covert insertion."

"Good, the fewer Covenant that know we're down there, the more time we'll have from the onset," Chief acknowledged. "Everyone ready to go?"

Shepard turned, looking at one of his team, the Grunt. The krogan was eyeing the Phantom with a grimace.

"I still don't get why we're using this thing and not the _Normandy_ ," he said gruffly. "We could just sneak in that way."

"Our stealth systems don't cloak the ship and with a lot of Covenant air traffic in the area, I don't want to risk it being seen," Shepard explained. "Same thing with the shuttle. With the Phantom, we're just one of their friends out for an excursion to the surface."

Grunt seemed to accept that, but Chief could tell he wasn't okay with everything else.

"Still not a fan of sneaking," he grumbled.

"If it's any consolation, chances are there will be a firefight before this is all over," Zaeed stated, making his presence known. He walked up behind the krogan, brushing his shoulder slightly as he moved into the Phantom proper. "All those Covenant down there means sooner or later the bastards are going to spot us."

"Lets make sure it's later," Shepard forewarned.

Zaeed just nodded as he entered the Phantom.

"Well come on then," he shouted back. "That little patch of land down there won't remain green forever."

Chief just nodded in agreement and boarded the Phantom proper. It was time to head back to Reach and uncover the truth. No matter how terrible it would turn out to be.

Kat kept the Phantom steady as it passed the initial Covenant perimeter. If she felt at all concerned or uneasy about the situation, she did not show it. She kept staring straight ahead, even when a few space-flight variant Banshees flew past them. She simply course corrected slightly to make sure they didn't obstruct them in any way. Chief remained behind her pilot's chair, not leering over her, but waiting for Cortana's report on how they were doing. It didn't take much longer for the AI to pop back up on the dash.

"Okay, looks like they bought the cover story," she informed them. "Simple supply run to some of the squads on the surface, no need for escort and signal code was accepted. We're good to land."

Chief just nodded and looked to Kat.

"Take us in, Noble Two," he told her. "The more distance between us and the fleet, the better."

"Aye, aye, sir," Kat replied, adjusting the controls.

Their flight pattern soon took them into the atmosphere, what was left of it anyway on the otherwise burned out rock. They emerged from the cloud cover to see a glassed landscape below, small fires raging along the scorched rock. Dried out lakes, blackened mountain tops, devastated forest and grassland. Everything was gone. Linda stared out the window as the Phantom sped along. Chief didn't need her to take off her helmet to know what was happening behind it. He felt the same.

Reach, regardless of what it was for so many people, a planet, a fortress or a colony, to a Spartan II... it was home. Jorge had always felt the closest to it, coming from the planet originally, but if you asked any other Spartan from his group, they would feel the same.

For most of their childhoods, what little could be counted as such, Reach had been where they grew up. Where they had formed their family, the only family they had left. None of them would've survived had they not learned to come together as such. Not related by blood, but by experience, by the strength of the bond between them. Reach, although in many ways their prison, was where they had forged that bond. Where they had become something more than what the labcoats and drill sergeants said they were. Where else did one create their family than a home? Reach was theirs.

Now it was a cinder. Chief walked up behind Linda, placing a hand on her shoulder. He didn't ask anything, he didn't have to. Linda answered for him.

"I don't even recognize it anymore," she said.

"I know," he said, sharing her disgust.

There was a brief silence as they both looked.

"We'll find them, John," she told him at last. "Whatever that entails, we'll find them."

Chief just nodded, looking back towards Shepard as he approached the two Spartans.

"EDI is still training the long range sensors on unglassed area," he reported. "We haven't picked up any human lifesigns, but she says if they're in those tunnels they could be too deep to pick up anything."

"I know my team, Shepard," Chief answered in the affirmative. "We can find them. Knowing Kelly, she'll have at least have left a trail of some kind and Fred would stick close to her no matter what. Same with the others."

"You know them better than I do," Shepard said astutely. "You don't need to worry about proving they're alive to me. So long as you think there's a chance, then they're down there somewhere."

Chief appreciated the support, but his usual training was still active. His feelings were present, but they weren't conflicted. He knew what they needed to do first if they had any hope of finding his team.

"We should head into the tunnels as fast possible when we land," he suggested. "Everything we know suggests that is where the relic would be along with any survivors. Finding an entrance is paramount to this entire operation's success."

"As far as I'm concerned, this is your OP, Master Chief," Shepard informed him. "Take the lead, we'll hang back with Taq and back you up."

Chief concurred with a solemn nod of the head and a silent thanks alongside it. He knew Shepard trusted him to not let his vision be clouded, the mission still came first. It was heartening, however, to know that the Commander still wanted him to succeed with his personal reason for coming back here. He had an ally in that endeavor, beyond just Linda and perhaps Kat and Jun. Knowing a someone outside the Spartan ranks understood his reasoning was comforting, for whatever it was worth.

Soon enough, the burnt out blackened earth gave way to a small sea of green, as they arrived over the untouched landscape the Covenant had spared for now. Kat flew in towards a small clump of forest near the rocky cliffs. It was the closest they could get to an entrance to the tunnels without being spotted. Once the Phantom had landed, the party exited the craft and formed a perimeter around the landing zone.

Taq had Shepard follow her out, the Relic from the _Dauntless_ in her talons, her eyes glued to its eerie glow. It seemed to fluctuate as she moved it around, sensing the immediate area around them. Eventually it resonated stronger in one area than another, working like a sort of compass, but not one that pointed North. It pointed to more treasure.

"We got a signal," she informed the team. "It's still here. At the very least, the Covenant haven't been able to get it off world."

"Then we still have a chance to snatch it right out from under them," Shepard reasoned. "You're on point, Chief, lead the way."

Chief nodded, as Cortana popped up on his omni-tool.

"Scans of the planet's topography places a possible entrance into the tunnel system several clicks due Northeast of our current position."

"We find a hole and we jump in," Chief reasoned. "Let's move."

Chief led the team towards the edge of the thicket, placing them a stone's throw away from the cliffs. There was a path leading up into the rocks. No one else was around, but Chief wanted to be certain.

"Linda, Jun, fan out to opposite corners of the thicket," he ordered. "Stay in cover and watch for movement. It's open ground there leading up to the cliffs and we're going to be exposed. We need to move fast and efficiently. Kat, stay with me, we'll move up first."

"We'll wait with Taq for your signal, Chief," Shepard informed him.

Chief just nodded and the Spartans went to work. Linda and Jun fanned out to either side of the thicket. Their scopes would be able to see further than most anyone else. It didn't take long for them to report back over the radio.

" _Chief, we have incoming,"_ Linda warned. _"Spectre vehicle, four elites, one on the turret. Standard patrol it seems."_

" _Single squad up on the cliffs on my end,"_ Jun reported. _"Three grunts, one Elite. Further away but moving towards our path. Upper section, among the rocks."_

"Linda, can you see them?" Chief asked.

It took a moment before he got a response.

" _I have them, but I'll need to get a better vantage point,"_ she claimed. _"If I can get up on one of these trees..."_

"Do it," Chief told her. "This is going to require precision. Cortana?"

"I've already jammed short range communications," the AI assured. "It'll take some time for either group to call anyone. Hit them quickly though, it won't last last long once they realize it."

"Got it," Chief acknowledged. "Shepard, if you and your team can cover me and Kat, we can handle the Spectre and its crew."

"We'll move into flanking position," Shepard said. "Wait for your go."

Shepard moved a little up into and ambush position, not too far from Chief and Kat. By now, they could hear the Spectre moving closer, the whir of its hover pads clear in their ears. It wasn't long before they could see it, the sharp pointed tip of the driver's cockpit unmistakable along with the plasma turret on its back. The gunner swept along the edge of the trees before returning to stand by position. It was just their luck that the vehicle stop practically in front of them.

"I was really hoping they'd move on," Kat said.

"No one is that lucky," he told her, reaching down to his ammo belt. "But it actually makes this easier."

As the Elites piled out of the Spectre, the gunner remaining on the turret, Chief pulled out a plasma grenade. He had pulled a few from the stock aboard the _Justice_ just before them came down.

"I throw this at the gunner and all hell breaks loose," he informed Kat. "Be ready move."

"Copy," Kat answered, readying her pistol.

The Elites milled about, speaking to one another as they seemed to fan out along the area, creating a perimeter of sorts. Chief kept waiting, it wasn't time to move yet.

" _Chief, I got eyes on the squad up in the cliffs,"_ Linda reported in. _"Clear headshot on the Elite leader. Should scatter the little guys once he drops."_

"You and Jun concentrate on them once the shooting starts," Chief ordered. "We'll handle the Elites down here."

Chief waited another moment more before acting, anticipating the right time. When the gunner turned the turret slight away from them, he activated the plasma grenade. He arched the explosive towards the gunner, the flaming blue ball fell towards it. It landed on the edge of the turret and stuck there, the gunner gazing at it in a second of disbelief before it exploded. The gunner was ejected from the seat of his weapon, flying into the nearby rock wall. His squad turned to see what had happened and that was when Chief rushed in.

Firing his assault rifle like mad, he charged the nearest Elite, peppering his shield. The alien rolled back and pointed his plasma rifle at the Spartan, only to receive a blow to the face from the butt of the rifle. It hit in exactly the right spot to topple the eight foot creature and throw him on his back, where Chief plugged the rest of his rounds into the Covie.

He didn't worry too much about the other two Elites, as Shepard's team had already opened up on them. Assault Rifle rounds struck them, forcing them to fall back into whatever cover they could find as they returned fire. Their plasma shots cut through the thicket, burning the leaves scorching bark. Shepard and his team remained hunkered down all the same, presenting as small a target as possible as they continued to pour on the fire.

Kat used the opportunity to get in close and slugged one of the Elites in the jaw with her robotic arm. She had pre-charged it with an electrical burst that shorted out the Elite's shield, but it did not deter the alien. He swung at her with his plasma rifle, missing, but followed it up with a kick to push her back He then pointed the Plasma Rifle at close range, but Kat pushed the gun away from her as he attempted to fire. The bolt went off harmlessly into the ground. Kat then gut checked the Covie with her robotic arm, smashed the butt of her pistol into the side of the Elite's head and then fired off two rounds point blank into him. One in the heart, another in his face.

Chief turned from his first target to his second now, but the Elite was already targeting him. The Spartan dove and rolled to the side as plasma bolts trailed after him. He let loose a burst from his assault rifle, hitting the Elite's armor hard. But it was another alien who swung the odds in his favor. Running at full tilt, Grunt charged in like a mad bull and headbutted the Elite in the gut. The Covie flew back into his Spectre, hitting the hood.

Even that wasn't enough to kill him though. He was soon back on his feet, firing on both Chief and Grunt, but the Spartan had him dead to rights. He clutched down hard on the trigger and advanced ahead of the Elite's shots, letting his shields absorb the direct fire. The Elite's shields dropped first though, swiftly followed by several bullets to the alien's head.

As the Elite's back slid down the side of his vehicle though, Chief's eyes turned to the gunner's seat at the turret began to move. The Elite he had hit with the grenade was still alive and had limped back to the turret, he was now training his sights on the Spartan. Chief moved to fire, but he positioned himself to dive in front of the Spectre. That was when a Sniper shot rang out and the Elite fell dead against his weapon.

" _Got your back, Chief,"_ Linda reported over the comm. _"Always."_

"Never think otherwise," he assured her. "The other squad?"

" _Down,"_ Linda answered bluntly. _"Jun took care of a few stragglers I let him have."_

" _Is that what we're calling it?"_ Jun asked playfully.

"Good work you two," Chief told them. "Circle back to us, we need to move up the path to the cliffs."

Shepard soon joined Grunt, along with Zaeed and Taq, in front of the Spectre with Chief. Kat moved up with them once she secured the area.

"I hope they're not all that quick," Grunt claimed. "Not much of a fight otherwise."

"We'd be so lucky," Taq stated, holding the Amplifier Relic tightly as it shone profusely. "The less distractions the better in my mind. The signal is definitely clearer the closer to these rocks we get. It has to be in the tunnels."

"Then we go up and under," Shepard said, as Linda and Jun arrived. "Lead on, Chief."

They started up the path. So far the mission was going well, as well as it could. Those dead patrols would be reported missing in due time. When that happened, the Covenant would know something was up. They needed to move quickly if they wanted to find the Relic before Grunt got his wish. And before they lost any chance to search for the others.

* * *

Zek had never made it a secret that he didn't like the ODSTs. Not once. He treated the Marines with indifference, Holland's Soldiers with apathy, the Spartans with a sense of reverence if only because they blew things up most efficiently. The ODSTs he did not like. Partially because they gave his people the most grief, but there was more to it. It was how they carried themselves, so full of it. Like they were the top tier lords of the mountain, better than you and everyone else.

They reminded him of sangheili, them and their whole stupid warrior cult. They were stronger, tougher, had better guns and they knew it. So they held that over you like it made them superior. That alone seemed to make them think they had license to to boss everyone else around, including kig-yar. Every single time he had been forced to work with them, they made a point of telling you how much they despised you. Made a point about how kig-yar were sneaky, how you were a greedy pirate, an opportunistic mercenary, a filthy ugly selfish mangy bird thing. As if being that was somehow an insult. Ha, Zek thought, it was to laugh.

And maybe he wouldn't have hated them so much, tolerated their attitudes, accepted their commonalities with the sangheili, if they just once showed some damn gratitude. Just once if they said, 'Thanks Mr. Pirate, Sir, for saving our useless naked ape asses from exploding!' Then maybe he wouldn't be so against working with them.

Instead, just like Haverson, they all had a collective chip on their shoulder. Even the ones who apparently had not mutined and remained loyal to Holland, they still were a bunch of assholes because they still made it a point to remind you how you were scum in some subtle way. And all because he was kig-yar, because he used to work for the Covenant and possibly because they resented the fact they needed him.

Needless to say, he had not enjoyed the ride in the Phantom at all as they approached the unmanned ONI Station. He spent most of it glaring with the ODSTs who had their helmets off. Or... was it him answering their glares of disdain with his own? He couldn't be sure who started doing it first, it just seemed like it was the natural first response. If nothing else, at least it proved the Drop Troopers were equally as miserable and pissed off over this arrangement as he was.

He didn't care to learn their names, although they probably had it printed somewhere on their uniforms. Zek just mentally checked their faces and came up with his own things to call them. The one across from him chewing on something or other was Ape Mule, as he heard that the latter was an Earth animal that chewed a lot. Ape Mule was clearly waiting for an excuse to spit on him, Zek decided he'd deal with that when it happened. There was another naked monkey next to him, whom he called Monkey Fuck, which is what he imagined was what had led to his conception. The guy was gripping at his pistol, trying to make sure Zek saw it as he loaded the magazine with rounds. Yes, you have a gun, everyone does. You're not special, humie. And then there was Dipshit, just Dipshit, cause he looked like one and couldn't help but give every Jackal the murder glare. When he figured out his rank, Zek planned to promote him to Corporal or Lieutenant Dipshit.

The only face Zek cared to memorize and not give a bad name to, was McKay. She had Captain stripes on her helmet for one, so she was hard to miss. Besides, it was only right not to lump her in with the rest of the idiots on her crew. At least she seemed to not treat his fellow kig-yar like they were still shooting each other. He doubted that meant she liked them, but she was willing to work with him. From the second he got on the Phantom she had made that clear.

"I have my orders," she had explained to him. "Get to the station, find our data, get out. Your mission is to support us in that objective. As long as you do that, we'll get along just fine."

Finally, a human that understood at least in some manner how business was supposed to be conducted. No one had to like each other, but that didn't mean you had to make the deal transaction more difficult than it needed to be. That was enough to at least earn McKay some respect from him. Now if only she could drill that concept into the dregs that followed her.

At long last, Ape Mule finally spat up whatever was in his mouth onto the floor near Zek's foot. He could feel the grease and grime of the chewed up crap from the human's mouth spilling over his boot. Zek just looked to the Neanderthal in kind, barely showing any kind of expression.

"I'm going to assume you meant to spit that somewhere else," he explained. "Otherwise, you humans have some rather poor manners."

Ape Mule just grinned.

"Thought you birds liked smelling like shit," he chuckled derisively.

"Depends on the kind of shit," Zek replied. "I'm not fond of odors of the primate variety. Too full of itself, literally, from all the centuries of inbreeding I imagine."

Ape Mule didn't take kindly to that at all given his look.

"You know," he said venomously. "Back where I'm from, we eat things that look like you on a regular basis. Sometimes deep fried even. So, you know, best watch what you say around us dumb primates, lest we get hungry."

"If it's any consolation then, you'll be happy to know I have no interest in eating you," Zek shot back. "I wouldn't want to digest something so clearly mutated beyond recognition. It's the only explanation for how you specific monkeys turned out so ugly. Likely from bathing in your own putrid shit and vomit since you crawled out of whatever mud pit that spawned you."

Ape Mule would've probably retaliated, had McKay not spoken up.

"Enough," she ordered, standing near the entrance to the cockpit. "None of us have time for any petty bickering. We're on the clock, stow the racial insults."

"Just some friendly jabs, ma'am," Ape Mule claimed insincerely. "That's all."

"Yeah, whatever," Zek snorted, deciding the idiot was ultimately not worth the effort.

With things successfully defused, McKay returned to her monitoring their progress. With any luck, it wouldn't be much longer before they docked with the station. Zek would still have tolerate the Drop Troopers, but at least he could put more than an arm's length of distance between himself and them. As he looked around, he could see his people doing their best to ignore the antagonization of the ODSTs. Some were not successful and were returning the glares with their own. Others just blocked it out by playing BBR in their comms loud enough that even Zek could hear it.

Retz, who was sitting beside him, didn't seem at all drawn in by anything the ODSTs did. Retz was above the petty squabbling, always had been. He just wanted to get the job done, like Zek did. The ODSTs continuing to hate him was not a concern, getting them off their high horse and be more trusting was. Otherwise, they'd never get this business venture off the ground.

"Think we should've asked Varvok to join us on this escapade?" Retz asked him.

"Nah, he and his men are on the _Serpent_ ," Zek assured. "It's close enough that if something happens, we can get him over there quickly. No sense in forcing him into this stupid mess. We're just playing support here, it would be overkill."

"Good idea to keep them on standby though," McKay chimed in. "With the Covenant swarming all over this system, who knows what could happen when we get inside the station."

"This is already overkill either way, ma'am," Dipshit claimed. "We're recovering data from our own servers and everything suggests the Covenant haven't found this place yet. It's a milk run, not worth this many squads... or back up."

Dipshit said that while eyeing Zek unflattering, but McKay made sure to end that quick.

"Sergeant Lendon, we've be over this," she stated. "The possible critical nature of the data uncovered by this unmanned station could be vital to the war effort. We are not leaving anything to chance. Haverson believes as much and I agree with him."

Zek finally had a proper rank for the guy now, Sergeant Dipshit. Had a nice ring to it. That was just a nice bonus though, seeing him cowed properly was the real treat. It didn't last very long though, as the lights in the Phantom changed to signal they were in sight of the objective.

"McKay to Cockpit, what do we got?" The Captain requested.

"Closing in on the station now, ma'am," the pilots reported. "Uh, but we might have an issue. Come on up."

McKay climbed up into the cockpit. Not being one to be left out, Zek followed. Retz was close behind. When they emerged in the cockpit, they both clambered over to the front window and took a look outside, peering over the seats. They could see floating icy asteroid ahead of them, near indistinguishable amongst the rest of the space debris that made up the planet's ring. Save for the clear bits of man-made structure sticking out of portions of it. Specifically an outdoor landing bay near an airlock embedded in the rock. Easier to spot currently perhaps because there was a shuttle of some kind resting there.

"Looks like some kind of ONI Prowler or something, Captain," the pilot claimed.

"So, what, your people are already there and doing our job for us?" Zek asked, a bit annoyed.

"Don't know," McKay replied, equally suspicious of the unexpected shuttle. "I'd imagine they'd have sent a distress signal on one of our secure channels. Haverson would've known if they did and he wouldn't have bothered giving us an Engineer for this mission if there were ONI operators on site already."

"Hmm, I agree," Retz concurred. "Haverson is many things, but he's not redundant. He would've told us about this being a rescue mission if he knew. There's no reason I can think of to hide this from us."

McKay thought for a moment, but her duty won out over caution for the most part.

"Take us in but stay alert," she told the pilots. "I'll tell the men to ready weapons and watch their corners. There is something about this I do not like and I'm not taking chances."

The Phantom came in for a landing right beside the Prowler. Very soon, every ODST squad was deployed, alongside Zek's kig-yar. The Huragok that Haverson had given McKay for the duration of the OP. The purple glowing gasbag floated beside McKay as they left the Phantom, mindful of its surroundings. It stretched its neck about, taking in the asteroid, remaining at McKay's side at all times. When the ODST Leader reached the airlock, she attempted to input the code she had been given to let them inside.

Her access was denied.

"The hell? Haverson's code didn't work," she reported.

"Now I really don't like this," Retz stated. "We should have the Huragok crack it then. Fastest way forward."

"My thoughts exactly," McKay agreed, looking to the Huragok. "Engineer, get us in."

The Huragok just nodded and forced its tentacles into the electronic locking mechanism. After a few short seconds of interfacing, the airlock decompressed and opened wide. The squads moved in, taking up positions by the door. However, once they got into the station proper, they found no one waiting for them inside. On one hand, good to know they hadn't walked right into a waiting gunfight. On the other, it did nothing to alleviate concerns.

"Okay, I have no idea if there really are people here or not," McKay admitted. "But ONI lockdown override codes do not change themselves and if there were ONI agents expecting us they'd be here to greet us. At the very least they would've initiated first contact over the comms once they realized we weren't Covenant. I'm sure there's a few cameras monitoring this pad."

"What do we do, ma'am?" One of the troopers asked.

"We stick to the plan," McKay informed him. "We fan out, secure the area, get the data, get out. Zek, position your teams for support roles and watch our flanks. If there is someone here, we need to be ready."

"Cool, I can work with that," Zek stated. "Potentially ambush the potential ambushers, sounds fun."

The squads began to fan out, Zek and Retz opted to stay close to McKay's group. He instructed his men to leave their suits on as they scoured the halls. If someone was here, and the shooting did start, it didn't hurt to have some extra armor, right?

The halls of the station weren't as bright as expected. Even with the station constantly powered by solar energy, a number of lights seemed to be off or busted. Maybe it was lack of maintenance, maybe the bulbs had just burnt out or there was a problem with the solar cells. Zek wasn't so sure that was the case.

Zek activated his helmet's extrasensory mode, allowing him to see better in the low light environment. It also could pick up some faint electronic signals, allowing you see something you couldn't with your naked eye. He had the same function on his scoped viewfinder he wore for sniping. At the moment, he just wanted to keep himself from stubbing his toe. Not longer after he turned it on, he was glad he did.

He reacted quickly, rushing up in front of McKay and blocking her off by activating his defense gauntlet, bringing up his shield instantly. McKay looked annoyed and confused at the same time, she quickly relented when she saw what he had randomly spotted just by sheer luck once the pirated pointed it out. Attached to the wall, just behind a small nook, was thermal-laser tripwire mine.

"I only spotted the laser when it got revealed through my extrasensory mode," he explained.

"Good eye all the same," McKay confirmed, getting a better look at the device. "Looks like some top tier hardware. I defused these back in basic."

McKay knelt down next to the mine, much to everyone's surprise.

"Ma'am," one trooper cautioned.

"Relax, I got this," McKay promised.

She opened the side of the mine, revealing a small numerical pad within. She typed in a code after a few brief seconds and the mine disarmed in an instant. She then carefully pulled it off the wall and handed it to a subordinate.

"They're designed to allow for easy retrieval," McKay explained. "You don't want to risk leaving these things live if the enemy hasn't tripped them after the shooting stops."

"How'd you know which numbers to push?" Zek asked.

"Serial number on the side is a give away to its shutdown code," she explained simply. "I memorized them by heart back in training, just in case. Real question is, what's it doing on a wall in an unmanned ONI station?"

"Doesn't sound like an efficient defense plan," Retz concurred. "I would imagine there are more though."

McKay nodded and activated her comm.

"Troopers, turn on your VISRs and set range finding for infrared spectrum," she ordered. "Watch your feet, there may be trip mines. Remember your training, put anyone with explosives experience on standby to disarm."

With any luck the Drop Troopers would sniff out the mines before anything exploded. That did not solve the whole problem though.

"Someone is here, someone with some nasty toys who doesn't want us around," Zek stated.

"That's a given," McKay agreed. "And part of me thinks they're not ONI or Covenant. The latter wouldn't use our mines and the former would've thought to shave off those serial numbers if they really wanted us to get killed by those things."

"Who else could it be if not them?" Retz asked.

Zek could see McKay had an answer, the look on her face was contemplative but firm. She knew something, but she said nothing.

"We keep moving," she stated. "The main system server should be this way. Zek, keep an eye out for more mines, would you?"

"Sure, not in the mood to get blown up myself," Zek agreed.

Zek took point for the moment with Retz, but neither Pirate was particularly enthused by the lack of answers.

"I don't like not knowing what other people are thinking," Zek whispered to Retz. "Especially in times like this."

"I wouldn't worry, Zek," Retz replied. "I don't think we'll be in the dark much longer."

* * *

Kat had stopped briefly along the cliffside. They were high enough that they could see past the patch of green that had landed on, to the scorched lands beyond. Not that there was much to see beyond black clouds and blacker charred earth. Chief didn't even need to ask why she had stopped to take a look. She hadn't trained here, she didn't live here for most of her childhood, but enough of her squad died here to make it sting. She realized he was behind her before he even said anything.

"Is it wrong that I'm kind of happy Jorge is dead right now?" She asked.

It took a moment for Chief to answer. He wasn't happy any of his Spartans were dead. Every death hurt him more than any bullet or plasma bolt could. Jorge hurt as much as any. Out of everyone, he got out of all of the training, all the augmentations, all the pain, with the fewest scars. Not literal, but mental. He retained the most "innocence" for lack of a better word. He was a good soul, as Kelly once said. He hated not being there for him when he died. He hated only learning so long after his death that he had sacrificed himself. Sacrificed himself for his home, Reach. The planet he thought he had just saved.

If Jorge had been alive to see this, one had to wonder if that would've finally broke him. What no Drill Sergeant or scientist's medical drill accomplished, the Covenant could've managed without even touching him. Reach had always been Jorge's home, even before he was taken. Now it was gone.

"I won't think less of you for it, if that's what you mean," Chief finally told Kat. "He'd... have hated to see this."

"I've been thinking about them all lately," Kat admitted bluntly. "Jorge, Emile, Six... Carter. Doesn't feel real they're gone at times."

"It never does," Chief concurred simply.

Kat was quiet for a moment, feeling her metal arm for a brief second.

"Six stayed behind," she said. "I'd like to think he lasted long enough to make a dent in their ranks. Gave us a few less Elites to deal with on Halo. Small comfort I suppose."

Chief wanted to tell her that Six could also be alive. There was no telling if he was really dead. If any of those with unknown status were gone. He stopped himself though. They wouldn't be here long enough to look everywhere. Even his hope of finding his team alive down here was slim. She had made peace with the fact her people were gone. It was not his place to raise her hopes up like that. Not when they were likely going to be dashed.

"Here's hoping we can get at least some Spartans off this rock," she told him. "That will make this worth something.

"Mission first though," he said, somewhat reluctantly. "We're here for the Relic."

Kat just nodded knowingly and turned away from the cliff, making her way back towards the team.

"We're here for a lot of reasons," she said. "Best get them done."

It was all she needed to say. Chief didn't need to ask her reason, she was here for the same reason he was. Absolution, redemption, the hope of a second chance to get it right. Or to make it right, if they had to.

They had already located the entrance into the caves below, a gaping dark mouth in the side of the cliffs that led into bowels of the now charred planet. The relic in Taq's hands resonated strongly whenever she moved it towards the opening and dimmed as she pulled away.

"It's likely still further in," she admitted to the team, "but it's somewhere inside."

"It's still gonna be a maze in there," Zaeed warned. "How we gonna navigate it all?"

"I'm trying to access ONI files concerning the tunnels they mapped in this area during Castle Base's construction," Cortana explained. "The data seems to have been corrupted somewhat, but enough remains to give us a general idea of the area. I'll do my best to correct or add to it as we go. That way, at least we won't be going around in circles for too long."

"Monitor our progress as we go then," Shepard requested. "Chief, take point, we'll hang back with Taq. Eyes and ears in there people, the Covenant could be patrolling inside the tunnels as well as out here."

The dank underground of the caverns was as expected, musty and dark. With only their lights to guide their way, and Cortana mapping as they went, Chief kept his ears keen to any approaching sound. There wasn't much to look at. A ton of rock formations, some fungus that grew in the dark, he could hear dripping further off down one tunnel. Possibly a source of fresh water. Evidence at the very least that someone, well supplied enough with food and ammunition, could survive down here while the rest of the planet burned.

The only other sound was Taq's Relic, resonating every now and then as they made their way through the underground. Chief eventually blocked it out, it wasn't what was relevant. He needed to be wary of possible hostiles patrolling the caves or wild animals that had come in here to hide or, with any luck...

Suddenly something popped up on his friend or foe tag, not recognized. It could be an animal, but that didn't seem right. He held up a fist to pause the others and they froze. No one spoke, but he ushered Linda to the front. She said nothing, but he motioned his flashlight towards a rock formation ahead of them.

"Cortana, are you reading anything?" He whispered.

"Focused in... transponder located."

She sounded surprised, but not suspicious. She knew as well as Chief did what that meant. He quickly thought back to training, something only they would recognized. He then let out a simple bird call, a memento of a fellow lost comrade, someone they would all remember and only they knew about, an owl's cry.

In moments, someone poked their head out from behind the rock. There, in dented, scuffed and burnt armor, appeared a Spartan. Chief didn't even need to look at his ID number on his breastplate, he could tell just from the helmet who it was. The T-Shaped visor and slight rim gave it away, it was Anton, one of their best scouts.

He had been right, they hadn't all been killed. He looked to Linda, and while no one else could tell, he could see her elation clearly. Anton approached slowly, holding up a finger to his helmet. Chief and Linda did the same.

"Well I'll be," Zaeed could be heard saying softly. "We found one."

Shepard patted Zaeed on the shoulder, signaling him to give Chief a moment. Something he and Linda desperately needed.

"Good to see you, Anton," Chief finally greeted.

"Same," he replied, cautiously sifting his feet a bit. "It is you right? Both you? I haven't gone stir crazy walking around these tunnels?"

"It's us, Anton," Linda assured. "I'd know if I was a hallucination."

"Good," Anton said, a slight laugh in his voice. "I knew you guys hadn't died."

"Spartans never die," Chief reminded him. "How many are left?"

"Can't be sure," Anton admitted. "Everything is a bit of a mess right now. Honestly at this point it's just us waiting for them to finish glassing and then hoping we can send a distress signal. Now that you're here, I'm guessing that means we got other options."

He looked behind Chief and Linda to see the rest of the team, noticing Kat, Jun first, before Shepard's team.

"A lot of options," Anton noted, before spying Grunt and Taq. "Also a dinosaur thing and a... Jackal prisoner?"

Taq huffed in derision. Shepard approached before there was anymore confusion. Chief quickly introduced him.

"Anton, this is Commander Shepard," he explained. "The dinosaur is with him and the Jackal is not Covenant, she's helping us on a critical mission."

"What level of critical?" Anton asked.

"The Covenant are after a potential superweapon here on Reach," Linda clarified. "We need to find it first."

"So pretty critical, gotcha," Anton said nodding.

Shepard saluted Anton, who offered the same.

"Good to meet you, Anton," Shepard told him. "Chief never lost hope there were Spartans still alive. Glad to see it was warranted."

"Feeling is mutual," the battleworn Spartan replied. "This is a bit much to take in, I'll admit, but any friend of Chief's is a friend of mine. That extends to your team. If they can help us get out of this, then they're gold in my book."

Chief quickly made sure to introduce the others Spartans, not wanting to leave them out of this either. They were part of the team too after all.

"Noble Two and Noble Three, Kat and Jun respectively," he quickly stated.

"Third Gens, huh?" Anton reasoned. "I kept hearing rumors about you guys."

"A bunch of it is probably exaggerated," Jun fielded. "But trust me, it's all warranted."

"Here's hoping it's more fact than fiction," Anton told him. "Either way, we need to get moving. Camp is this way, follow me,. You can explain everything there."

Anton led them through the darkness, tracking back deeper into the cave itself. Taq was somewhat displeased when the Relic's resonance dimmed greatly. They were going off mission somewhat, but she only grumbled in anticipation of getting back on track. Chief imagined she wouldn't object to getting some extra hands to help secure the artifact for transport in the end.

"We used to have a set up near the entrance to the tunnel system lower down the cliffs," Anton explained as they went. "The Covies started increasing patrols though, we had to go deeper. We were't sure why they hadn't glassed the area at first, but we figured they'd reconsider if they found us."

"Did you hear anything about them hunting a relic?" Shepard asked.

"We caught some chatter over their net, something about a search for a religious site or whatever," Anton replied. "All it meant to us was that we had time to get somewhere secure before they changed their minds. We've done our best to stay out of sight, small patrols, never take any major risks that might expose us. When I detected your UNSC Transponders on my scans though, I deviated from my patrol to get a look myself."

They rounded the next bend to find a small camp in a large open alcove within the cavern. Two machine gun turrets were guarding the entrance, manned by UNSC Marines, inside the perimeter were a few more, mostly enlisted men. There was barely even a handful of them left. They were in a pitiful state, wounded, tired, hungry. Chief couldn't blame them, he was surprised any of them were alive at this point.

As they entered the assorted disheveled Marines all eyed the newcomers. They spotted Chief and the extra Spartans instantly. If they were elated, Chief couldn't tell. They were in no shape or mood to start cheering. A few faces did seem relieved. Many more looked baffled or surly when they spotted Grunt. The krogan just grimaced in their direction, uncaring as to what they thought. Taq got the worst of the looks, more than a few gripped their guns tighter as she passed. She wasn't currently holding a weapon, but their weariness was there all the same.

"I don't appreciate their hospitality, Commander," she informed Shepard.

"Easy, Taq, they've been through a lot," he tried to calm her.

"No excuse for poor manners," she replied.

Anton finally led them to a table, adorned with a map depicting the tunnel system. A few non-coms were stationed around it, the only officer at the table was a man in a tattered and dirty Naval Uniform. His Vice Admiral rank was easily identifiable via his hat alone. He was also one of the only people in the whole camp with enough energy left to smile. So at least someone had held onto hope, that was encouraging.

"Sierra 117, the Master Chief," he greeted in a thick southern accent, recognizing the Spartan leader instantly. "Well ain't that a kick in the pants? Vice Admiral Whitcomb, at your service, soldier. Welcome to Camp Independence, such as it is."

Chief and the rest of his Spartans saluted as per protocol.

"Good to see you too, sir," Chief replied. "I was hoping to find at least a few survivors."

"Few is a bit of an overstatement at this point," Whitcomb admitted. "But we're breathing still, so I can't complain."

"Admiral Whitcomb was stranded here when his escape shuttle was destroyed," Anton explained. "He rounded up as many survivors as he could and got them to safety beneath Castle Base. I ran into him during the whole mess and assisted best I could."

"Wouldn't expect anything less," Linda observed.

Whitcomb turned to Shepard next, his grin seemingly just as wide as ever.

"And you must be Commander Shepard," he declared. "Well I'll be, they said you traveled with aliens. I didn't expect one of them to be a big ol'crocodile."

Grunt just grumbled in disdain, but Shepard eased him off with a raised palm as he spoke to the Whitcomb.

"Good to meet you, sir," he said saluting. "Surprised you've heard of me."

"Everyone in the central command on Reach heard about the mysterious ship with an integrated human and alien crew," Whitcomb explained. "I was privy to all the knowledge the Joint Chiefs were after all. I didn't expect someone to come to us, let alone either of you two at once. Hopefully this means we can leave sooner than expected."

"We're going to try and get your people out, Admiral, but we have our own mission," Shepard explained. "The Covenant are searching for something on this planet. We need to get it before they do."

Whitcomb just nodded, seemingly expecting that condition. His eyes of course fell on Taq soon after.

"I'm assuming this... Covenant prisoner is part of that?" He asked.

Taq was fed up now, whatever restraint she had vanished as she marched up to the table and forced herself to the front.

"I am an archaeologist who just happens to be a kig-yar, or Jackal, as I keep hearing you humans call me," she snarled. "I am not Covenant and I would appreciate you not calling me that already."

A few of the non-coms had gone for their pistols when Taq approached, but Whitcomb waved them down.

"Relax people, I doubt that the Master Chief would let an alien carry around a gun and a fancy green rock if he didn't have a reason," he informed them, turning back to Taq when he was done. "My sincere apologies, ma'am, but we have been through a hellish predicament most dire. Our nerves are more than a little shot as it were."

Taq rolled her eyes and just placed the Relic on the table. She moved it around until it started to glow more profusely. Thankfully, they hadn't gotten too off track it seemed.

"We're close, but still a ways off," she informed Shepard. "We need to get back on task."

"We will, but these people know more about these tunnels than us right now," Shepard explained. "We could use their help."

"I would be more than happy to assist, Commander, Chief," Whitcomb assured. "But given the circumstances at hand, I suspect something of an explanation is in order first if I am going to be of any use."

Chief quickly clicked on his omni-tool, allowing Cortana to appear on it.

"Admiral, UNSC AI CTN 0452-9, Cortana," she introduced herself. "I think we'd all be more than capable of answering that. But it's a bit of a long story. I suggest you take a seat while I pull up relevant information."

Whitcomb did so, bringing over a small ammo crate. His non-coms did the same, as the debrief began in earnest. There was a lot to catch him up on.

* * *

This station had looked a lot smaller on the outside. Zek had expected to be at their required server or console by now. Then again, they were forced to waste a lot of time disarming traps within the halls. Whoever was setting up the various mines and improvised explosive traps had a lot of time on their hands and somehow a ton of things that went boom. He'd have to ask about that when they met the jerk or jerks doing this garbage. Assuming they didn't start shooting him, of course.

McKay was finishing securing a grenade trap by replacing the arming pin. Once she had forced it in she handed the grenade to one of her Troopers. She wasn't the only one stuck doing this of course, they kept getting reports about traps strung up everywhere in the halls. The squads were inching forward very carefully, their situational awareness heightened. The fears of an ambush were ever present now.

"That makes four mines, six laser tripwires and three improvised grenade traps now," McKay stated. "And that's just on our end. Whoever is behind this has a lot of experience with this sort of thing."

"Normally I would admire such dedication to a craft," Retz claimed. "Especially one involving such deadly cunning. However, this has become monotonous. How much further?"

"We just have to get through this server room up ahead," McKay explained. "The access console is on the other side. Just be patient, keep your eyes open for anything and we'll get out of this soon. Trust me, you're not the only ones who want out of here fast."

"I don't know," Zek quipped sarcastically. "Change of decor, some nice furniture for a sitting area, reserve a spot for a kitchen, we could settle down make a life for ourselves."

Mckay sighed, not really appreciating the joke all that much. She kept in front as they moved through the next door into the server room. Computing towers dotted the area, along with a number of service catwalks above. There were a lot of twists and turns in here, perfect spot for some more traps. So they pressed forward cautiously. At least until McKay stopped dead in her tracks.

As the ODST leader scanned the area, Zek sensed her trepidation and it added to his own. This was a wider space, more room, tons of nooks and crannies up above them. Sure, traps were a danger, but really, what was a better thing to put in here? What would really catch someone offguard? Zek knew instantly. Just before he spotted the glint.

"DOWN!"

McKay's warning came as she dove into the cover of server tower as a shot rang out. Zek activated his shield gauntlet, just as a bullet missed McKay by inches. It slammed into a yellow wall of plasma, but Zek rushed to cover all the same. The rest of the kig-yar and ODSTs with them did the same, as more bullets came at their position.

"That's a standard issue sniper rifle," McKay stated over the gunfire. "Can anyone see him?"

Zek moved his shield up into the open. A bullet slammed into it and he pulled back into cover.

"Yeah, he's up in the service decks," he reported.

More gunfire was soon added to their sniper rounds flying at them. They weren't coming from the ODSTs returning fire though. Near as Zek could tell, they were from the same general area as the sniper's shots. So there was more than just one guy out there. McKay was the first to return fire, poking her head out to shoot at one of the other gunmen. Zek tried to see what she was firing at, using the telescopic scope he wore to close in on her target. From what he could see, it appeared to be a human in some kind of tattered jumpsuit wearing riot armor. When McKay pulled back into cover, she was well ahead of his questions.

"I knew it," she said with a low snarl. "The traps should've been a dead giveaway. Insurrectionists, at least four of them from the sounds of those Battle Rifles they're using."

"Insurrectionists?" Zek asked, confused.

"They're wearing military prisoner jumpsuits," McKay explained. "They're colored coded with orange stripes. If they were deserters or something else, they'd be a different color. They're Innies, no doubt in my mind."

That explained how she knew, but not who these humans were. Although Zek imagined with a name like Insurrectionists, they were not on good terms with the people running the human government. Zek probably wouldn't have cared about their political position as much though, if they weren't currently shooting at him and the crewmates he had with him.

"Who are these fuckers and what are they doing here?" Zek asked, pressing McKay for more information.

"Terrorists who don't like the UNSC and have betrayed Earth," she answered bluntly. "As for why they're here, best guess is they came from Reach. Probably an ONI detention center. During the invasion and subsequent glassing, they escaped, stole a ton of military grade weapons and supplies, jacked that Prowler we saw outside and somehow made their way here."

"How would they even know where to find a secret unmanned spy station posing as an asteroid?" Zek asked with increasing frustration. "Seriously, the fuck?"

"That's why I said they're probably from an ONI detention center," McKay clarified. "The coordinates must've been on the Prowler they stole. They must've figured this would be a good place to hold up until the Covenant moved on."

"And swipe themselves some tasty intel in the process," Retz readily surmised. "They have initiative, I'll give them that."

McKay did not appreciate the initiative though. In fact, she just looked pissed. Zek took comfort in the fact at least that it wasn't against him or his fellow pirates though. She and her ODSTs began returning fire in earnest, but the Sniper kept them from advancing. McKay got onto her radio in the meantime.

"Second squad, we have hostiles, Innies, Server Room," she reported. "We are pinned down and require assistance."

The voice of the radio was clearly that of Sergeant Dipshit, and he had equally grave news.

" _No can do, Captain, there's a squad of them down here in the generator,"_ he reported back. _"They got a damn machine gun and are dug in deep. Jackals' are providing some cover, but their shields aren't up to snuff against the bullet hailstorm. They're pinned down too."_

Damn, there were more in here than they thought. Probably how they got so many traps set up in such a short amount of time. All of which was likely a delaying tactic, Zek reasoned. It kept them busy while these other humans got set up in their ambush points.

"Just hold on, Lendon," McKay ordered. "Try and find a way to flank that gun, I'll see about sending you some help."

Zek suspected that meant him and Retz. It was what they were here for after all.

"No one is getting anywhere with that Sniper out there," he informed her. "He needs to be dealt with first."

"Agreed," McKay concurred, surprisingly.

Zek had almost been certain she was going to start arguing with him. Not that he was complaining, but still, it was weird to have an ODST, even one that had been as cooperative as McKay, agree with anything he said. Than again, maybe she just really wanted that Sniper dealt with.

"If we can flush him out, can you take him down?" She asked.

Zek pulled the Needler Rifle from off his back and readied it.

"The fucker is already dead," he assured her. "Just get me a shot."

With that, Zek looked to the top of the Server Tower. With a single thrust from his legs, he leapt onto the lip of the tower, clutching it in his claws. Pulling himself up, he crawled along the top, laying in prone position. The catwalk above him made things a tight squeeze with little wiggle room, but it also made him a hard to spot target, especially in all the abject darkness. The same held true for the sniper in the service area above the opposing towers though. The abject darkness of the area made it hard to spot him and Zek could only snarl at the shadows in the moment.

Thankfully, McKay held up her end of the bargain. More so than expected even. The ODST leader rushed out into the open, firing her rifle at the opposing servers and the assorted Innies, before ducking behind another one. The overeager enemy sniper fired back, but his aim was off. McKay was just too fast for him. His shot gave away his position with a smoky trail left in his bullet's wake, leading right back to the sniper's nest.

Quickly. Zek zeroed in on the target. He spotted the shadowy outline of the sniper in the service area, preparing to move to another spot. He didn't give him the chance. Zek fired several needles into the man, striking him around the chest. Three shots later, a glorious cloud of pink fire erupted. The enemy's rifle went flying and the assorted gunmen were left in shock.

"Go! Now! Get to the generators!"

McKay's call was answered. As she returned fire on the enemy with her team, Zek rolled off the top of the server and down to the floor once more. Retz soon joined him, firing his twin Plasma Pistols as a pair of kig-yar covered them with their shields.

"I suggest we move now, sir," Retz told him. "Lest these Insurrectionists find their second wind."

"Move then," he ordered. "Door just over there!"

Zek took his people out of the server room and made headway towards the generators. He didn't waste any time in speeding his team along of course. Not that Zek particularly cared if any of the ODSTs survived this, but the prospect of saving Sergeant Dipshit's ungrateful hide and lording it over him in the future was too delicious an opportunity to ignore.

Besides, it was part of their job being here. Haverson would not be able to claim they didn't live up to their contractual obligations for this mission after this.

* * *

Whitcomb kept silent for the most part, rarely asking a question to clarify or expand upon a detail. The rest of the time he was attentive, thoughtful and respectful. Even when Taq took over for some specifics only she could fill in, he showed incredible decorum. Although a few insults directed at the Covenant probably helped smooth things over. When everything had been recounted, from Halo's discovery to the extraction of the Amplifier Relic, along with all the problems it had caused, the Admiral finally spoke at length.

"Now that is debriefing for the ages if I ever heard of one," he claimed. "You might all just get vids made of yourselves one day. Assuming it all isn't instantly classified of course upon our return to Earth."

"Right now our concerns revolve around the Relic currently on this planet," Shepard explained. "We're not sure what it can do yet, but given what we've found about the Amplifier, we can't risk the Covenant taking it."

"The sooner it is recovered, the sooner we can get everyone here off planet," Chief added.

Whitcomb seemed agreeable to the terms, standing upright and overlooking the map on the table.

"We've been trying to map the tunnels in order to reach Castle Base," he explained. "We were hoping to fortify up there, maybe even grab us some possible transport off this rock or send a subspace transmission to command. We've made progress, but it's a literal maze down there. Anton is the only person we can realistically spare for any prolonged reconnaissance, so it's been slow going. However, he has encountered a few surprises down there, so to speak."

"Symbols, ruins, partially intact structures and the like," Anton filled in. "All clearly Forerunner in nature. Tunnels are dotted with them. The major concentration of everything I've run across so far is around here."

He pointed towards the map, his finger close to Castle Base itself, a series of tunnels that appeared overlap onto each other.

"It's a major concentration of Covie activity though," he warned. "I wasn't willing to take a risk mapping it further."

"If the Covenant are swarming that section then they've already pinpointed it as a likely area the artifact is in," Taq stated. "We need to head there, see if the Amplifier resonates. If it does then we're more or less golden."

"We're more less in the middle of a hornet's nest," Zaeed warned. "How we getting out of there once we're in?"

"We can climb," Cortana explained.

Using the omni-tool's systems, Cortana overlayed a hologram onto the map of the tunnels. It showed a very detailed layout of the cavern system in a three-dimensional template. A specific area, a large atrium stretching high into the cliffside, was highlighted.

"My topographical scans combined with the information Anton has uncovered during his scouting reveals a shaft leading up towards the top of the cliffs. Combined with ONI's own data, it reveals a potential exit that should put us within Castle Base's perimeter."

"My men can't make that journey in their condition, ma'am," Whitcomb warned. "Especially with all the Covenant about."

"They won't have to," Cortana assured. "There's a secondary way into Castle Base, through these tunnels."

She highlighted a twisting set of caverns leading up through the cliffs towards the ONI facility.

"Assuming I've read this right, and I probably have," Cortana stated firmly. "You'll be able to pass by the lower sections of the base. A simple explosive through a wall here should allow you access into a sub-level storage area once detonated. We can rendezvous there once we've secured the relic."

"And if the Covenant are there, our presence will likely draw any additional patrols away from you," Shepard added. "Making it easier for you to get out in one piece."

Whitcomb nodded agreeably at the strategy. It was probably the best idea he had heard in a long while.

"Alright, this could work," he said, growing in confidence. "No, no, it will work. It has to. Alright, Chief, Shepard, you best take Anton with you. He's done more sorties into that area than anyone else, he knows it better than us."

Chief looked to Anton and nodded, although he suspected his fellow Spartan would've went with him regardless.

"Well, it's a good thing I insisted on bringing climbing gear in any case," Taq stated. "We should be able to zip right up that shaft in no time."

"Assuming the relic is there of course and easily retrievable," Chief informed her. "Either way, we should inform Haverson and Holland immediately. They need to know of our progress and who to expect for extraction."

"I'll try to boost our comms signal," Cortana stated as she searched for a connection. "Being this deep underground could make contact difficult. Especially if we want to keep it from being intercepted."

As Cortana tried to zero in on the _Justice_ to send their status report, the static was broken by something else. Something feint over the line of communication.

"Odd, I'm getting another UNSC signal," she reported. "Its bouncing around like crazy but it's from somewhere in these caves I think. Let me try to get a fix so I can clean it up."

"Could be more Marines," Whitcomb suggested. "Other groups who got lost down here. Then again, it might just be stray beacon they never turned off."

Chief wasn't sure, a belief that became more concrete when the signal became less mangled by static. They could now hear several beeps coming over the line. Short and long spurts, constant and repeating. Shepard knew what it was instantly.

"That's morse code," he recognized. "I remember this from survival training, back in N7. Dots and dashes, the most basic of any distress signal."

"Can you make heads or tails of it?" Taq asked.

"Don't bother, I know what it says," Chief stated bluntly.

He looked briefly to Linda and Anton. Both Spartans nodded in agreement. They recognized it too. The dashes and dots were unmistakable and all too familiar.

"We need to get moving, now." He said firmly.

"What is it, Chief?" Kat asked.

He didn't blame her for not knowing, she wasn't a Spartan II, she wouldn't know what the message meant or why it was important. For that matter no one else here besides him, Linda and Anton. So he clarified.

"There are more Spartans down here," he said. "And they need our help."

That was all anyone needed to hear, as they quickly moved to follow Chief towards the tunnels. As he did, he whispered something to himself. Something that only Cortana, sharing the same headspace as him, could really hear.

"Olly olly oxen free."

* * *

Zek didn't understand how the humans had gotten this far with their rather outdated power resources. Solar was decent enough as a renewable supply, but plasma just had a more sustainable value. Especially in deep space. Perhaps it was admirable they had managed so well under those circumstances. Of course, given the current exchange of gunfire, there was proof on hand that it had not been without some hiccups.

As he and Retz skulked about the generator room, the other crewmates by their side, they could clearly see the situation. A small squad of so-called Insurrectionists, mostly riflemen behind improvised barricades and one machine gun nest, engaged with Sergeant Dipshit's people. The ODSTs were pinned behind their cover, unable to make any realistic flanking procedures. They returned sporadic fire, but it wasn't enough to dislodge the innies, well dug-in within their position among the generators.

"Lets toss some plasma and waste them already," one of Zek's crew suggested.

"You think the humans wouldn't have done that already?" Retz informed him. "We start chucking grenades in here, among these generators, what happens if it blows one of those up instead? Best case scenario we only lose power and can't access the intel on the servers."

"Worst case we blow up a chunk of this room with us," Zek added. "Either way we defeat the whole purpose of why we came here. We need to do this the old fashioned buccaneer way. Up close and brutal."

Zek pulled out his plasma machete and activated it alongside his shield gauntlet. He then motioned to his team to either side of them. From their position, they could get on the Innies direct flank and behind them, hopefully they'd be too focused on Dipshit to worry about them. Of course, if they were spotted moving in, they could turn that machine gun on them. A kig-yar shield could only last so long under that hail of fire before the force of the constant bullet barrage knocked you down. They were meant for small arms, not heavy weapons. So they needed to be careful.

Retz stood close by, moving swiftly through the generators as they approached the enemy position. They got within spitting distance of the enemy when they stopped. Finally, Zek could get a good look at them. The riot gear seemed to support McKay's theory. The vests had ONI printed on their backs, boldly in white lettering. They were only vests though, so you could see the orange stripes along the jumpsuits, along with the prisoner numbers on the sleeves. Zek was a bit surprised, compared to how Covenant treated their prisoners, it was amazing to see human criminals provided something that at least worked as functioning clothing. Given how McKay spoke of them, you'd think they'd be in rags or naked.

Their protection wouldn't be much against plasma based weaponry though. Those armored vests seemed designed specifically for lead projectiles, not an energy bolt. Still, underdressed for a fight did not mean lacking in firepower. Zek would have to be careful when taking them down.

He looked to Retz, crouching behind a generator nearby. He gave the signal, letting him know that everyone was in position. It was now or never. First things first, get rid of the machine gunner and free up Dipshit's people. He trusted only one person to handle that. He nodded at Retz and sliced a finger across his neck. Retz grinned and moved in for the kill.

Switching one of his plasma pistols out for a energy dagger, made of the same stuff their needle rounds were just stronger and less explodey, Retz jumped towards the back of the Innies squad. He landed carefully, facing the back of the machine gunner directly. He then rushed in and stabbed hard into the human's back, then again into the back of the human's neck before twisting and slicing away. As the Innie fell, he clutched at the machine gun's handles, forcing it to aim upwards as he collapsed. The other humans turned to Retz. They were either shocked that their friend was dead or that a kig-yar had done it. Maybe both, but it was enough of a pause for Retz to sling his energy dagger into one of their number and shoot at a second.

The dagger hit near the heart, penetrating the vest enough to at least cause the human pain and stumble back. The other human screamed in agony as plasma slashed into his torso, the vest proving useless against energy based weaponry as Zek had suspected. Retz knocked the legs out from under the human and rolled into a defensive position. With his energy gauntlets activated, he began deflecting the incoming shots from the other Insurrectionists. That was Zek's cue, along with the rest of the pirates. They charged at the Insurrectionist position en masse, shooting from behind their shields as they moved to support Retz.

Zek went for the jugular of course, rushing in from the side to bash one Insurrectionist with his shield before gutting him with plasma machete. He blocked the incoming fire of his comrade, as rifle shots bounced of the defensive plasma. He forced himself forward before slicing at the human's hand that was pulling the trigger and then stabbing clean into the terrorist's throat. Another of them rushed him from the side though, hitting him hard against the head with his rifle. Zek shook it off, and bunted the human's weapon away with his shield before running him clean through.

As for Retz, he didn't let his incoming support prevent him from making quick work of these human ex-cons himself. As they provided him support, Retz moved forward, firing his plasma pistols at them. He aimed for their heads, the fastest way to take these idiots down. Once he was close enough, he made short work of their numbers. He blasted one in the gun as he punched his weapon into it, then let off another bolt into the face of another Insurrectionist behind him as he turned. A third came at him with some kind of improvised blade, but Retz just grabbed the arm and twisted it. The human let the weapon drop, screaming in pain, as the kig-yar forced him to ground and then discharged several plasma bolts into the idiot's head.

It was over in a few short seconds. Retz let the body of dead human go limp as Zek kicked one of them to make sure they were dead. The rest of the kig-yar gathered around, securing the area.

"Pft, amateurs," Retz snarled. "Not even the jiralhanae are this sloppy. Evidently, the human Insurrectionists do not have a vested interest in quality soldiers. Just cannon fodder."

"Hey they survived a second longer than I expected," Zek joked. "Give them credit for that at least."

The ODSTs soon moved up onto the platform, weapons drawn. Thankfully, not on the kig-yar for once, just he various dead humans around them. Their Sergeant soon approached Zek, looking no doubt for a sitrep.

"You get'em all?" He asked impatiently.

"I don't know, we might have left one alive for shits and giggles," Zek sardonically responded. "Yeah, we massacred them all. What does it look like we did, Sergeant Dipshit?"

"Lendon," the human snarled. "Sergeant Lendon."

"Yeah, that's what I said, Dipshit," Zek spat back. "You're welcome by the way."

To Dipshit's credit he didn't throw a punch or make a threatening gesture. He did, however, growl as he went to his comm.

"Captain, the Innies are terminated down here," he informed McKay. "Jackals pulled their weight for once. How are you doing up there?"

It wasn't the kind of appreciation he wanted, but the smug satisfaction over the fact Dipshit had to admit he had been saved by kig-yar, even if it was only a backhanded compliment, was enough for the moment. There was still the problem of the assholes upstairs to take care of, as McKay made very clear.

" _They pulled back after we tagged another of their number, but it was all a damn feint,"_ she explained. _"They've got the main console room locked down tight. Several hostiles up front, shotguns and assault rifles a plenty. We got them sighted, but we can't get close right. We need you and Zek's people back up here pronto."_

As McKay finished her report, the stinging sound of the station's intercom came to life. It rung in their ears painfully for a few seconds before a clear voice came through the speakers.

" _Well, well, this is a surprise,"_ the voice stated. _"We expected Covenant when we spotted your transport on radar. Then we found out it was a pack of the UNSC's war dogs. And now, it seems you've teamed up with the Covies too. So much for protecting humanity, huh? What? You fuckers finally join up with the aliens glassing us all? Or maybe this whole damn war of yours was just another ruse all along?"_

"Oh great, one of them wants to talk," Retz groaned. "How... annoying."

" _Doesn't matter, I'll cut to the chase,"_ the Innie continued. _"My name is Dagen, that's all you need to know. When we stumbled upon this base in the Prowler's logs, we figured it would be a nice place to get some juicy ONI secrets. Instead, we find ourselves locked out and currently in a standoff with you lot. We can't get in and neither can you. Here's the deal, you give us whatever code they gave you to retrieve the data on these servers and let us walk. Otherwise... well... we did manage to hack into one critical system from here. Self-destruct. I think that says everything that needs to be said."_

Zek and Retz looked at one another befuddled. This was his play? Do what I say or I blow myself and you up? He really was an amateur. That being said, Zek figured McKay was not about to let Dagen get his prize nor would she risk the whole team along with the data getting blown up. Zek wasn't sure if this was a bluff or not himself, but either way he was not getting played by a bunch of punk sloppy terrorists and their asshole leader.

"Let's get back to McKay," Zek declared gravely. "We need to strategize."

* * *

The signal was going in and out constantly, but Cortana did her best to keep Chief's headset tuned to it. All the while, Taq kept checking the Amplifier Relic, her mind fully focused on the concentration of the resonance. Chief's mind was only half on the mission now though. With more Spartans alive and in these caverns somewhere, how could he not be? It was only by seemingly sheer luck that as the resonance grew stronger, so did the SOS signal.

Anton kept in front, leading them through the various twists and turns of the caverns themselves. Linda kept the closest pace, ready with her rifle should any Covenant who might pop up. Chief knew they were close, even if they couldn't see or hear them. Anton assured them all they were there, deep into their territory. Chief trusted his judgment. He had been here for way longer after all.

"We're getting closer," Taq said, trying to contain her excitement. "Snatching a sacred relic right out from under the Covenant's stupid noses. Ha, I love this job, so much."

Anton only looked back briefly to stare at the Jackal before turning to Chief.

"She's... very enthusiastic about this archaeology thing, isn't she?" Anton questioned.

"Not your typical Jackal, that's for sure," Chief acknowledged. "How close are we to that atrium?"

"Not far," Anton assured. "Just a few more bends and we're there."

Good, they'd find the relic with any luck and see how far the Spartans were from there. With any luck they could hold the extraction area for a time before they needed to head to Castle Base proper. Unfortunately, that plan was soon complicated when they could hear voices in around the next corner.

Anton paused, approaching the sector cautiously. The others followed suit. Chief looked up ahead alongside Anton to see for himself what they were facing. A single Covenant squad, standard formation, two elites, four grunts. Nothing too terrible, but they were heading towards their objective, towards the atrium.

"They're closing on the relic," Chief warned. "We need to move now before they can report it in."

"We start shooting though and the Covies will hear it," Anton warned. "We won't have long before they zero in."

"We'll just have to risk it," Chief stated. "Linda, Jun, provide suppressing fire. Anton, Kat and me will move in close to take them out."

"We'll provide support," Shepard assured. "Just in case there are any surprises."

A good idea, if Anton's assumptions were right, there would be other squads close by. The Covenant rarely traveled too far out of range of one another. Numbers and force were their strength. Linda and Jun got their rifles ready and took aim at the Covie squad. As they did, Chief led the rest of the Spartans down the corridor quietly, trying to get as close as they could before attacking. When they reached some cover in the form of some rock formations, Chief gave Linda the signal to light the enemy up.

Linda fired her Battle Rifle at one of the grunts, hitting him in the methane pack which exploded off his back. Jun followed suit by taking pot shots at the Elites and their shields. The opening salvo sent the Covies racing for cover of any kind, firing back like mad.

Chief unleashed a torrent of fire from his assault rifle, cutting down one of the grunts as he rushed for cover. Kat fired pinpoint shots from her pistol, intent on eating away at the shields of one of the Elites. Anton kept the other Elite occupied, forcing him to stay down.

Another of the grunts fell as Chief hosed the area with bullets. That was when an energy bolt hit his cover. Charging in from a nearby cavern appeared another Elite and a pair of grunts with him. It was a small reinforcement, but enough to potentially make this last longer than it had to.

Chief looked out onto the field and spotted a discarded plasma pistol from one of the dead grunts. He looked to Kat and Anton to provide him cover as he moved out into the open. His fellow Spartans obliged by sending a hail of fire at the newcomer Elite, forcing him into cover so his shields could recharge. Chief rushed for the plasma pistol, grabbing it in his hand as he held onto his assault rifle with the other. As he moved in closer, a blaze of fire erupted amongst one party of grunts while a singularity ruptured above another. Chief didn't have to look back to know Shepard and Zaeed were giving him backup, he kept pressing on.

Within seconds he was within spitting distance of the Elites' positions. He overcharged his plasma pistol as he slid into their numbers and fired it right into the nearest one. Discarding the alien weapon, he took back full grip onto his assault rifle and unloaded it into the now defenseless Covenant officer. As he fell, Chief jumped back to his feet and smashed his rifle into the face of a charging Elite. He proceeded to wail on the Covie, blow after blow from his rifle before expending the rest of the clip into the alien proper. That was when he got tackled.

The final Elite had forced him to the ground and was now trying to stick his plasma rifle into his face. Chief grabbed the gun and tried to force it back onto its owner, but the Elite was strong, especially for his kind. As they struggled to get a hold of the weapon, the Elite roared defiantly in the Spartan's face. And then suddenly, a single shot rang out. There was a brief plume of purple blood and the alien collapsed to the ground, a hole in his head.

Chief forced the body off of him and slowly rose to his feet.

"We should really just get you a knife or something," Cortana told him. "It would make this way easier."

Chief didn't pay the comment much mind because something about how that fight ended perplexed him. The bullet seemed to have hit the Elite in the opposite direction from his other Spartans. If so, where had it come from. That's when Cortana piped in again with more relevant information.

"Chief," she began cautiously. "The SOS signal is coming in perfectly clear now. We're practically on top of it."

Chief was already looking towards the other side of the rock formations. There was what looked to be a crop of Forerunner ruins ahead of them, buried in the rock, but slowly excavated out. The design was unmistakable, given what Chief remembered from Halo's lower levels and surface structures. Among the Forerunner ruins, even before the others joined him, Chief had already switched to his old team's frequency, Red Team's frequency.

"Kelly, Fred, Joshua" he spoke aloud. "Are you there? Are you receiving?"

That was all it took. Emerging from the ruins of the excavated Forerunner structure, were two Spartans. Chief knew them before even seeing the serial numbers on their armor. The helmet designs, one with a smaller visor, the other with a wider one, made it clear who they were. Kelly and Fred, his Red Team. Linda was right next to them once she realized they had emerged.

"I don't believe it," Fred said as soon as he found the words. "I was hoping that signal would work but..."

"Linda, Chief, you're here," Kelly said, shocked but clearly pleased to see her teammates. "We should've known. If anyone was going to come for us it would be you."

Linda moved over clasp arms with Kelly, followed shortly by doing the same to Fred.

"Chief never lost faith that you had made it," she told them both. "It's... good to see you both again."

"Likewise," Fred assured. "We've been through the ringer here."

"So have we," Chief stated. "It's a long story. Very long."

It was at that point the two Spartans noticed the others, including Shepard's team. The Commander approached, signaling both Grunt and Zaeed to stand back for the moment.

"Commander Shepard, Fred 104 and Kelly 087," Chief introduced. "They along with me and Linda made up the rest of my primary Spartan team."

"Good to meet you," Shepard told them both, saluting. "Sorry we're a little late getting here."

"Just glad you came," Fred told him. "And I'm sure you'll explain the giant alligator you have following you in time. Right now, maybe fill us in on the... other alien."

Taq had proved to be uninterested in the reunion, she was already pushing her way through the crowd, relic in her hands. It was now resonating intensely now.

"It's here," she began stating with a measured degree of jubilation. "It's here! We're practically on top of it!"

"It?" Kelly asked.

"This is Taq, she's a Jackal but she's on our side," Chief went over quickly. "We're looking for something similar to the artifact in her hands actually. We were searching for it alongside you. We could use your help finding it."

"No need," Fred assured. "We got one other person here actually. Ma'am?"

Fred had turned back to the Forerunner ruins. Out from behind one of the rocks jutting out from the side wall appeared an old woman in a ragged labcoat, clutching something in her arms. The distinct resonating glow made it clear what the object was, even if it didn't exactly match the Amplifier's appearance. It was more crystal-like than anything. That was what caught Taq's eye as she edged close to it. Chief was more surprised by who was holding said crystal, Dr. Catherine Halsey.

"Commander Shepard, John," she greeted upon seeing the two respectively. "What a timely rescue from you both."

It was Halsey alright, she was the only person who ever called him exclusively by his real name. Never his number, never his rank, just his name. At least whatever she had endured down in these tunnels hadn't damaged her sense of dry wit. Although Taq was clearly trying her patience by poking the amplifier in her face constantly. Halsey kept pulling back.

"Could you tell your avian bedfellow to stop shoving that thing at me?" She requested.

"This is it, the relic!" Taq shouted happily. "We found it! Praise the Oceans, we found it! Ha, ha!"

"Taq, celebrate later," Shepard reminded her. "We still need to get out of here. And please, don't antagonize the good doctor. She's been through enough."

"So long as I get a chance to look at it later, fine," Taq huffed. "Just don't make me wait too long."

Chief approached Halsey, Cortana appearing on his Omni-tool as he brought it up.

"I trust the partnership is going well then," the doctor observed.

"Splendidly," Cortana replied. "However, we might have a few things to discuss between us once we're out of here."

Halsey raised her brow aloft and looked to John.

"It's mostly between you, Cortana and Tali actually," he clarified.

Halsey looked down again at the AI.

"How long?" The doctor asked.

"Detected it as soon as Tali plugged it in," Cortana responded smugly. "Really? You didn't think I would know how you think? I'm not even mad, I'm fine with it actually. I'm just a bit disappointed you thought I was that stupid."

Halsey just sighed.

"We can discuss this further along with any else that has transpired when we are out of danger," she declared. "Right now, we must exfiltrate this area."

"We were planning on using the atrium," Shepard said, pointing to the doorway behind her. "Cortana says there's a likely shaft leading up to the top of the mountain."

"She's correct," Halsey admitted, noting Cortana's satisfied look upon the AI's face as she did. "I hope you are more than prepared to climb."

Taq had already pulled out her grappling lines and held them up for all to see.

"These ain't just for show, lady," she laughed. "Now come on, lets get out of here with our prize already!"

The group rushed through the doorway into the atrium proper. The shaft within did reach high up to the top of the mountain. It was indeed a long climb. Taq was quick to set up the grapple launcher which would get them out of here quickly. However, Chief started to wonder if it would be quick enough. He held up an arm suddenly, as he eyes darted to the various upper galleries overlooking the atrium, leading all the way up the shaft. Everyone went quiet, just as the truth revealed itself. From out of the shadows, appeared a horde of Covenant, all lining the galleries, all with their weapons trained downward... on them.

Zaeed was the first to say anything, but it was a sentiment no doubt shared with all in attendance.

"Ahhhhh... fuck."

* * *

The main console room could be seen clear from the server room floor. It overlooked the area with a wide glass window with a single lift leading up into the room embedded into the wall beneath it. McKay had formed a perimeter directly in front of it among the servers. She kept her people's crosshairs targeted on the windows overhead. The huragok was hovering nearby, connected to the server tower the ODST Captain was using as cover. McKay herself was keeping her eyes trained on the console room, her mind desperately trying to pose a solution to the standoff.

When Zek and Retz returned, McKay waved them over to her position. Zek motioned his men to take up cover with the other ODSTs as he did so. Once they settled in, McKay filled them in the situation.

"They have snipers in the windows with additional support," she informed them.

"You got them locked in?" Zek asked.

"We have shots, but the second we pull the trigger we risk going up in smoke with them," McKay warned. "I checked with Haverson, this station was outfitted with a self-destruct."

"They can't possibly have access to it," Retz huffed. "Any system like that would need the proper codes or keys. Don't tell me it's just some button you have laying on the dashboard."

"Haverson assures me no," McKay answered dutifully. "But, we have no idea how long they've been here. They could've cracked the codes or hacked the system or rigged up a bypass, regardless, we can't risk it."

Zek didn't bother to ask if they were just giving these idiots what they wanted then. He knew one thing about Haverson, he did not like to appear the chump. Giving secrets to terrorists was about the chumpiest move a person like him could make.

Besides, he wasn't giving up that easy either. Last thing any pirate did was give up potential spoils to people who didn't deserve them. Which meant anyone who wasn't you, of course.

"Then we need to get in there and take them all down before they can trigger it," Zek declared firmly. "Is there another way in besides the lift?"

"Our glowing tentacled friend here is working on that angle himself," McKay assured. "He can't crack the deep files from here, but he can access supplementary systems. We're looking for a layout of this place, see if it can give us something to use."

The Huragok turned and chirped at McKay, before moving one of its tentacles over to her omni-tool, activating it. Appearing on the screen were a series of schematics for the station, every floor, corridor and room. She focused in on the main console room and started looking through the files. It didn't take her long to find something useful. There appeared to be some kind of hollow space above control room itself.

"Okay, they were doing some renovation work before Reach was attacked, adding an additional floor," she explained. "Probably for additional storage space or more data servers, whatever the reason they had started drilling into the rock but hadn't finished."

"And it's just above the heads of those idiots," Zek chuckled. "All we gotta do is blast through the floor of that place and take them completely by surprise!"

"A good plan, but we need to stall for time I think," Retz suggested. "Convince these terrorists that they've beaten us, while we prepare their downfall."

"I'll keep them distracted through negotiations," McKay told them. "A few of my men will accompany you to the hollowed out section. You can get there through some service tunnels back through the entrance to the server room."

"I'm not sure we got the right ordinance to handle bursting through all that rock though," Zek informed her.

"My guys do, don't worry about that," McKay assured. "You just focus on killing those Innies and disabling their auto-destruct capabilities."

"From data recovery to assassination, now this is a pirate worthy contract," Zek declared with grin as he ignited his plasma machete. "You'll have their leader's head on a pike before the hour is out, Captain."

Zek couldn't explain it, but he just found this sudden demand among the humans to kill their own kind so enjoyable. He was unsure if McKay appreciated his zeal or not, her expression and tone didn't change. It spoke volumes more than anything her words directly claimed. She hated these people, maybe more than she ever hated kig-yar. She wanted them dead and she honestly didn't care who did it, even if it was an alien. Perhaps it was because he was an alien. These Insurrectionists still fought their own government during a time their race faced annihilation. Perhaps it wasn't a betrayal of humanity, but Zek imagined it felt like one. They placed their own survival above that of Earth's. If there was one thing he had learned about this species it was how much that concept enraged or troubled humans.

He couldn't really care less about that, but Zek did still want to kill these human terrorists anyway. Maybe it was because they were trying to steal the share he was promised by Haverson when he got forced into coming here. Maybe it was the fact they made a nice surrogate to hammer all his frustrations concerning the ODSTs out on while also being completely sanctioned by the Drop Troopers themselves. Or, most likely and most simply, he just really needed to stab something today. In the end, it was probably a combination of all three. It mattered little, what did matter was he was going to enjoy this regardless of the ultimate reason for why.

Zek let the ODSTs lead for once, they had a better sense of direction. If only because one of them had an omni-tool with a map downloaded into it by McKay. The easy part was traversing the service tunnels, they were roomier than expected. Perhaps because human technicians weren't as bulky as huragoks and didn't like to crouch for hours on end. Eventually they managed to reach their destination, forcing their way through a broken wall and a bunch of work tape stretched over it.

There wasn't much to the hollowed out space above the console room. It had scattered work equipment every where, most digging tools like high powered drills and the like. The walls were still craggy and uneven in places, smoother in others. They really had been forced to leave in the middle of their job. For whatever else it was, the space was a reminder that they were inside an asteroid and not your regular old space station.

The ODST soon stopped in the middle of the rock floor.

"Here, here, here and here," he said, pointing to four distinct corners close to him. "Set the charges boys, lets give these Innies a new sun roof."

"You mean pirate roof," Zek sinisterly chuckled,

Strangely enough, he thought he heard at least one of these xenophobes stifle a laugh. He honestly hoped it wasn't just wishful thinking. Maybe they were finally getting their sticks out of their asses at last. All over mutual hatred of another group of humans. He wasn't sure if that was ironic or not, but it sounded close.

As they watched the ODSTs place the charges, Retz and Zek prepared themselves for a fight. Luckily they weren't going in there alone, obviously the ODSTs wanted to jump in there too. They were the spearhead though, the fear factor, so they had to make a good impression on the assholes inside. The lead ODST also had some extra helpful intel to add.

"Good news, McKay just radioed me, the Engineer cracked the camera inside the console room," he told them. "You guys want a preview?"

"It does help to know who you're about the kill," Zek admitted. "Just a bit."

The ODST kneeled down and brought up his omni-tool's display. It showed the inside of the console room, filled with Innies. There were six of them. Two snipers, three riflemen and their leader, Dagen. He was hunched over a nearby comm-unit as his pack of followers were either crowded around or keeping an eye on the window. They didn't suspect a thing. Before long, the audio eventually kicked in through the static.

" _-not good enough,"_ Dagen said threateningly into the comm-unit. _"I want absolute assurances. That means we keep the Prowler AND your Phantom. You can ask your CO to send you a new one to pick you up."_

" _That was not the original terms you set,"_ McKay's voice shot back. _"You said, you wanted the intel on the servers and be allowed to leave the station. I'm willing to give you that, but I'm not letting you take advanced alien technology as well."_

" _Oh what, need permission from your new vulture buddies?"_ Dagen asked mockingly. _"I'm not giving you bastards a chance to pursue. In fact, I want make sure you don't have whatever ship you came in on blow us out of the sky. We want hostages, two of them."_

" _Now you're being ridiculous,"_ McKay responded firmly. _"I'll give you the code, but you won't get it unless you send someone down here to get it. It's manual so-"_

" _I don't believe you,"_ Dagen shouted back. _"You or your filthy space chicken friends! I've been in here long enough to know what we need! So tell me the code in the next thirty minutes or we all go up in smoke!"_

Retz held his beak rather pointedly as he watched.

"I'm going to enjoy killing him, I think," Retz stated. "He seems most unpleasant."

"I'm getting real sick of every other person referring to me as that earthen avian creature as an insult myself," Zek stated bluntly. "We ready to go yet?"

The sound of a final compression clamp and several beeps, signifying the last charge was ready, gave Zek his answer. Everyone pulled away from the area, preparing themselves.

"Okay, when this goes off, we need to move fast," the ODST lead said.

"Deal with the losers at the windows," Zek told him. "I got their leader."

He turned on his plasma machete, Retz brought his shield gauntlets up and the ODST lead pressed the detonator. The charges exploded, ripping a hole right into the room. Crumbling rocks fell onto one of the terrorists, burying him. He would not be a problem. The strike team moved in next.

Jumping through the hole, landing inside the room proper, the ODSTs opened fire on the snipers near the windows, gunning them down before they could bring their weapons to bare. With their main source of protection from assault gone, McKay would be charging in any second now. Zek and Retz focused on the remaining three Innies, still dazed from the explosion and too frantic to respond.

Zek charged in ahead while Retz let loose a torrent of bolts from behind. The dual plasma pistols made short work of the terrorists as they tried to move into a defensive position. As they fell into the console, burning plasma bolt wounds all over them, Zek went for the head of the snake itself. To Dagen's credit, he tried his best to defend himself, pulling his pistol and aiming it at the kig-yar charging him. Only to have his arm sliced off at the elbow and then impaled. Zek forced the man's head down to his own.

"How's that for a fucking space chicken, humie?" He shouted at him. "Huh? How you fucking like that?"

Zek then unholstered a needler, stuck it in Dagen's mouth and pulled the trigger once. He then deactivated his plasma machete and let the body fall to the floor. With a pink shard, still jammed into the human's throat, Zek kicked the Innie's face in a few times before finally just spitting on him.

It was already over by then, the lead ODST in the assault looked over to him as the others secured the area.

"You good?" He asked, not sounding at all disapproving of what was done.

"Just... fine," Zek said, taking shallow breaths. "Peachy, as humans say."

The ODST just nodded and walked off. Retz bothered to actually press further.

"And you said you hated this mission," he recalled. "Now it seems it was therapeutic."

"I can't complain about the outcome," Zek admitted. "At least I got to shoot someone who deserved it."

For a pirate, that was usually enough. It wasn't like Zek felt any particular hatred against these Innies after all. They hadn't done anything to him until today. After being in close proximity so long with the likes of these ODSTs though, forced to not do anything about it, for so long, and then encountering a bunch of humans it was okay to kill? Well, Zek had to admit he didn't mind running into that problem at all. Like Retz had said, therapeutic.

McKay arrived shortly after, coming up from the lift at the back of the room. She directed her men to take the bodies out as she moved to the console. The lead ODST from before was there to greet her.

"Captain we found out what they were going to use," he said, holding up a detonator hooked up to the console. "They manually tapped into the fuse ignition with this. Very crude, but effective. Thankfully, it is easily disabled and we can transfer the coded detonation sequence to your omni-tool for safe keeping."

"Good," McKay told him. "Lets get what we came for and get out of here."

The huragok was now in the room. He floated over to the access console and began accessing the data logs directly. Before long, the access codes were engaged and the system began feeding all accumulated data into its synapses, storing it all for later transfer into Haverson's personal hard drive no doubt. As this was being done, McKay went to talk to Zek and Retz directly.

"Great work today, guys," she told them. "You and your fellow pirates actually."

"Just fulfilling our contract," Zek plainly assured her. "That's all."

"I know this mission wasn't easy for you," she relented. "It wasn't for us either. I'd like to think we managed to reach some common ground though. We wouldn't have been able to get this far without each other."

Zek preferred to think they got this far despite each other, but why ruin a nice sentiment? Especially when it was probably the only one he'd ever get from an ODST in a while.

"Just tell me you got something good off these damn computers and it will be worth it," Zek told her. "And maybe get Haverson off my back to boot."

"I can't promise anything," McKay informed him. "But I think he'll appreciate your contribution to this mission's success at any rate."

That would be the day, Zek thought rather cynically. Haverson had accused him of using the UNSC as muscle, now Haverson was trying to use him. Maybe turnabout was fair play, but Zek wasn't about to be the toy soldier of another power with a cause not his own. This would not be common, not if he could help it.

That was when Zek's personal omni-tool flared up. He was receiving a call. As he answered it, it was revealed to be Varvok on screen.

" _Zek, please tell me you've wrapped everything down there,"_ he asked, sounding concerned.

"We're almost done," he assured the batarian. "Just a few minor hiccups that have been recently terminated. Why? Miss us already?"

" _We have a problem,"_ Varvok stated insistently. _"A new crop of ships just jumped into the system and parked right in front of us. Holland took the Ascendant Justice out of close range to avoid detection."_

"More Covenant?" McKay asked, sounding worried.

" _It's not Covenant,"_ Varvok warned.

The batarian flicked a few buttons on a nearby console, transferring a feed to Zek's omni-tool. On it was an image of the ships in question. They were three Battlecruisers, but their markings and weaponry didn't match standard Covenant protocol. They were colored black and on their sides were printed imaged of a scarred kig-yar skull, a pair of energy cutlasses behind it.

Zek didn't bother asking further question. He knew what this was. Who this was.

"Snarlbeak," he grimaced. "He's tracked us down."

* * *

AN: Apologies for the double cliffhanger folks, but this ran long too. I knew it would when I realized what needed to be accomplished. Good news, more Reach for you next time. There should be some bits of background info posted on my blog. You can head to the link in the profile, it should be there by the time this is posted. Oh, and for those nostalgic for the story that started this project off, HellFox has new audio you might like. If your fans of One Punch Man, you'll also probably enjoy his choice of music. Heh, it is oddly appropriate. Link should be in the profile where it usually is. Thank you all once again for your patience with these updates and your kind words of encouragement and correction, I hope to hear more from you all once this chapter goes live. See you for more Reach Shenanigans, next time.


	18. Crystal Clear

**Chapter 17: Crystal Clear**

 _I am a free prince,_ _and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field;_ _and this my conscience tells me!_

 _-Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy_

The Covenant surrounded them at every angle. They held the high ground in every respect. They outnumbered them easily. Yet not a single plasma bolt fired, nor did any needles fly. They just stood there, their weapons trained on the Spartans, Commander Shepard, his team, Doctor Halsey and Taq. The grapple launcher was good to go, but no one dared fire it should the shooting begin in earnest.

"Shepard, what's the plan?" Grunt asked, keeping his rifle trained on the galleries over them.

"I don't know," Shepard admitted. "Until we figure out why we're not dead yet, I got nothing."

"Cortana, can you remote pilot our dropship to our position?" Chief asked the AI, backing towards the grapple launcher.

"I have a link up to the autopilot, but we might have some complications," she warned. "Covenant ships are moving into range. Getting our Phantom in here in one piece won't be easy if they arrive."

At that moment, Chief noticed a pair of Hunters moving into position along one of the balconies. Their weapons were already charging, aiming down towards them. In a split instant, Chief rushed out to grab Halsey, pushing her to the ground. The move signaled the other Spartans, even Jun and Kat, to react instinctively themselves without orders. They rushed to cover, pushing Shepard's team and Taq to safety just as the barrage of hot green plasma was launched their way.

"Brace!" Chief shouted aloud.

Explosions rocked the area, as the fuel rod shots detonated around them. The entire floor shook, rocks burst apart, searing heat burned their shields as they hunkered down beneath the blasts. When it was over, they all stood back up, but remained in the cover of the excavated rocks and Forerunner arhitecure. They prepared to fire back, but there were no additional shots. Instead, every Covie in the shaft was now looking at the Hunters, and those nearest the Hunters were trying to get away from them.

Seconds later, the gallery where the Hunters who had fired were stand on erupted in a blaze of plasma. Every Covenant soldier who had a shot let loose on the area for a solid minute. When it was over, the entire gallery was a singed smoking remain, the Hunters were surely dead. It was followed by a bunch of screaming from what sounded like Elites. Cortana quickly translated with little prompting.

"They are restating a standing order," she told the team. "No one fires recklessly, the risk is too great."

It was now obvious to all why they had been spared so far. The good Doctor expressed their collective thoughts first.

"The crystal," Halsey reasoned. "They don't want to risk damaging it."

"Then that's probably our only ticket out of here," Shepard stated. "Taq, can your cannon reach the top of that shaft or not?"

Taq had walked back over to her grapple launcher, only to find it badly damaged. The Hunter's blasts had struck it true. Its propellant systems had taken a hit.

"Ugh, I was stretching its range before," she explained, looking over the damage. "We'll be lucky to get it halfway to the top now. It's lost too much pressure in the shooting."

"Then we need another way up," Jun said. "I guess we could fight our way up there."

"Not enough bullets between us," Kelly surmised. "And something tells me if any of us gets too far away from the crystal, we're fair game. Once they have a clean shot they will take it."

"I know I would in their position," Linda agreed. "We need a way to stick together."

Shepard's gaze had turned skyward and he soon started grinning.

"I think we have another exit," he told everyone.

Everyone looked up to see several Phantoms coming down from above, entering the shaft and slowly lowering to the floor itself. They were bringing in more ground troops, meant to no doubt slaughter them with ease and steal the crystal with minimal risk to the relic itself. Just like Kelly said, if they had a shot they would take it. Easier to prevent something's destruction if you were at point blank range after all.

"How is that an exit?" Taq asked, not at all impressed. "They're coming down to finish the job and pry the relics from our cold dead talons."

"Not if we get to them first," Shepard suggested. "Get that grapple launcher ready. It's going to get us out of here after all. Well, halfway out anyway."

* * *

Zek had a Phantom pick him and Retz up from the asteroid station, leaving his men behind to continue helping McKay finish up there. He said nothing the whole trip, his mind flush with questions. How had he found them? Was there something he missed? Did he make a mistake? How were Holland and Haverson going to react? Was this going to affect his cut of the intel? All in all, he never imagined a good mood could be drained so quickly away. He supposed he should've expected it though. It seemed like for everything that went right, something else had to go wrong. He couldn't just get cut a break for once in his damn life.

As he rushed onto the bridge, Varvok was already there. The batarian already knew the question on the pirate's mind before it was asked.

"They haven't deviated since we spoke," he explained. "They're continuing a basic search pattern along the edge of the rings."

"Have they found us?" Zek asked. "Is the cloak holding?"

"I'm not sure," Varvok admitted. "Everything we've picked up says they're trying to deep scan the area. All the debris in the rings could be making it hard to get a good reading."

That was partially why the asteroid base was set up here. Zek still didn't like it though. Zhoc was smarter than this. He probably knew he was somewhere in the rings of the gas giant. He just couldn't suss out where. So he blocked them off, knowing that he couldn't make a move without being spotted. Even with their cloak, there were systems capable of detecting a ship. Zhoc was rich enough and forward thinking enough to buy a few. Meaning right now, these rings were their best protection.

That was when the dashboard started glowing red. It was Zek's personal channel. Someone was hailing him, directly. Not the ship, him. Now things were becoming clear.

"Do we answer?" Retz asked, noting the light. "It could be a trap."

"We're already trapped," Zek huffed. "What's it matter?"

Zek activated the command console, opening the channel. To his surprise, it wasn't Zhoc on the other end. It was another Kig-Yar, wearing a skull mask, emblazoned with black symbols. The pirate sported a thick mane of quills, colored red, black with gold tips. His armor was covered in small bones, trophies of previous kills no doubt.

"I am Zon Gak, Master of the Black Skull Fleet of Pirate Lord Zhoc," he declared. "Shipmaster Zek, you have impeded the plans and machinations of our lord long enough. It ends today."

"Skip the dramatics, buddy, you sound like a Sangheili," Zek shot back disrespectfully.

Zon spat on the ground in response.

"You dare compare me to the species that murdered our lord's blood? You truly are a disgrace," he growled. "Why he seeks any form of parley with you is beyond me. But he wishes it all the same. Do you accept the request?"

"What if I say no?" Zek asked, already suspecting the answer.

"Then I fire every plasma torpedo I can until the rings of the gas giant are ash," Zon warned. "You will not survive the onslaught."

That was a stupid tactic, more likely to bring attention from the Covenant fleet in the area than anything. But McKay was still in the asteroid base and Zon's barrage could potentially hit her before their work was done down there.

"Fine, connect me," Zek relented.

Zon pressed a few buttons on his command chair before his image faded. In its place appeared Zhoc, not looking entirely too happy. Not enraged though, he just seemed pestered, annoyed. As if he had better things to do. Considering he wasn't here himself, that was the impression he wanted to give. Zek knew better.

"Zek, Zek, Zek," Zhoc sighed. "You know, at first this was kinda fun. I got to see what my old friend's son was made of. Then you decided to steal more of my property. My very important property. You really think you can muscle in on my racket now? It wasn't enough for you to team up with humans and snatch away my relic?"

"Anything I took was freely offered as stated in the pirate code," Zek declared. "If you can shoot at it, then it is up for grabs. Spoils to the victor. You should've taken better care of your stuff, old bird."

"Those Chorka aren't yours, they never will be," Zhoc informed him. "I spent years cultivating their pods, breeding and cross-breeding species from different seas. I smuggled every single one off the homeworld, put the time and effort into getting the system in place. You think taking some babies out of my pocket is going to supplant me? You're kidding yourself, boy. You always have."

"Then I hardly think this is about stealing those Chorka," Zek replied. "It's just something that pisses you off right now because it's the most recent thing. This is really about the relics, we both know that."

"True, but that doesn't mean I can't be pissed off about it," Zhoc grimaced, balling his talons into small fists. "It wasn't entirely hard to figure out where you'd go after stealing them though, that much was a happy little coincidence. Once my convoy's escorts failed to check in, tracking their last known coordinates was easy. Following their trail to the system you were in and then the Forerunner wreck was only slightly more difficult. The real challenge was figuring out where you'd go from there. Until I realized the best place for a bunch of fugitives to hide in, both human and kig-yar alike, was right under the noses of a Covenant glassing operation. So thank you, Zek. You made tracking you down so much simpler."

"And I presume you've instructed your minion wearing the skull to lock onto my ship's hailing frequency," Zek surmised easily. "You made sure to copy it down when we first had a talk like this. Just in case I got away."

"Unfortunately it's not a stable enough signal to get a good trace on you in those rings you're hiding in," Zhoc stated. "We wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise. I would have just had you killed and then see if I could find my relic in the wreckage. Instead, let us just continue to make this easier. Where is it?"

"Safe," Zek shrugged nonchalantly. "That's all that really matters at the moment. But you must be cracked if you honestly think I'm going to hand over the map to the friggin Astral Cutlass."

Zhoc said nothing but his glare was all Zek needed. The smugness crept onto the pirate's beak as he watched the scarred old bird seethe with rage.

"Did you really think we wouldn't figure it out by now?" Zek asked. "The Syndicate are after us because they don't want you to get your talons on it. The damn information was encoded onto the artifact. You had to have known it would be there. Seriously, after we had picked it up and everything, did you honestly think Taq wouldn't figure it out in time?"

"I managed to fool Taq long enough before her curiosity got the better of her," Zhoc exclaimed. "I suppose that was an error on my part. I did hire her because of her talents after all. I'm surprised you're still on this quest though, knowing what is at stake and who else is playing the game."

"I'd still like to know how you figured out the Cutlass was even a prize in all this," Zek wondered aloud. "That's not just something you stumble upon."

"Taq wasn't the only scholar on the Forerunners I hired, just the most effective," Zhoc explained, his anger disapating into pride. "I've turned over every rock and peered into every crack I could find. Tracking down Forerunner cities and structures, trying to discern truth from legend. I believed that the Cutlass was real and with every discovery I grew more and more convinced of that reality. References to a weapon cleaving through ships, the plundering of whole worlds, stories that were all hidden deep within the Forerunners' lore, their archives and their history. Discovering the mission of the _Dauntless_ and later its location were both the culmination of several decades of work, blood and soul."

The pride faded, replaced once more by loathing.

"And you and that Ex of yours turned it all upside down in a few short seconds," Zhoc sneered in barely contained rage. "All because she couldn't keep her beak out of things she had no business peering into."

"Should've paid her better then," Zek chortled. "You may have just avoided all of this."

Zhoc scoffed at the suggestion, his sneer widening. Eventually his glare eased into a monotone expression, acceptance of what he could not change. He got back to his point.

"I've spent too many years on this project to see it go down the tubes like this, especially now," he stated plainly but clearly agitated. "You don't realize what is in motion, Zek. Too much is at stake and you're standing in the way of my progress. It's... infuriating."

"Why the hell do you even need the Cutlass?" Zek asked incredulously. "You're more than powerful enough to make a go at anything you want. Carve out any part of the galaxy for your own. Why make a legendary sword a priority for so long?"

"The Cutlass is more than just the legend, more than just a stupid song sung by sun-crazed buccaneers," Zhoc declared, reverence and respect in his tone. "It is a legacy, a promise, a symbol of kig-yar pirate supremacy. To hold it in your talons is to hold absolute power and the complete domination of space. Why else do you think the Syndicate fears the possibility of me holding it?"

It suddenly became very clear to Zek what this was really about. The Syndicate knew of Zhoc's plans, possibly through their spy network. Given what the Cutlass could do, they had come to the same conclusion that he had just reached now.

"You want to usurp the Syndicate queens," he reasoned. "Rule the three most powerful Pirate Clans, all under the banner of Snarlbeak, wielder of the Astral Cutlass. You wanna be Pirate King."

"The first ever Pirate King," Zhoc confirmed cooly. "The Queens have had their time and all they've done is sit on their asses and reminisce about nostalgia and the Golden Age. Before the Covenant, when their ancestors had power. The Syndicate fears the change I can bring Zek, change I've already sensed. I hoped I would have more time, but things are accelerating. Now that I'm this close, after so long... I have to complete it."

"Why? What's going on?" Zek asked confused. "What's so damn important you need to get the Cutlass now? You've waited for years, what's a few more?"

Zhoc just started to laugh, uproariously and maliciously. It was like he was in on a joke that Zek had unwittingly walked into. Lucky for him, Zhoc was more than eager to explain.

"You really should know, Zek," he chuckled. "You're part of the impetus for it. You and those human friends of yours."

Zek raised a brow in confusion, looking to the others for clarity. They were as clueless as him though, unsure of what the old bird was getting at.

"You really think you can destroy the sacred ring, Halo, the world the Covenant have been searching for since they began their empire, and there would be no repercussions?" Zhoc chortled. "That getting a price on your heads is all that happens? No, what you did created a ripple effect, the tides are changing within the Covenant, Zek. The Sangheili are losing favor. They failed in their sacred duty to the Covenant, it's only a matter of time before a power shift happens, I've forseen it. And when it happens, we must be ready. I must be ready."

"To do what?" Zek asked insistently.

Zhoc only grinned sinisterly.

"What else?" He declared happily. "With the Cutlass in my possession, the Syndicate will be forced to bow to my will or be destroyed. I will have the most powerful fleet in the galaxy. The perfect offering to give to the Covenant, to allow the kig-yar to take their rightful place within the hierarchy as the right hand of the Prophets."

Zek was taken aback, as was everyone else. Zhoc, Snarlbeak, the most powerful independent Pirate in the galaxy was planning to become a privateer and drag every single kig-yar he could with him. And, if Zek was being fair, as horrifying as that was he had to admit one thing about it. When the Old Bird set a goal he went for broke.

* * *

Taq held the grapple cannon tightly, angling it towards the nearest Phantom. It was swooping low, moving in a counterclockwise manner descent as it circled the chasm. The kig-yar's hesitation to shoot was obvious, Taq was no sharpshooter, she wasn't Zek. Thankfully there was someone here who was. Linda's eyes acted as Taq's own, guiding the female Jackal's aim ever so slightly.

"Little bit more towards the nose," she told the alien. "It needs to be right inside if this is gonna work."

"I got it, I got it," Taq assured. "Just be ready to move your asses."

As the Phantom took another turn, it's side-gunner scanning the area frightfully, Taq seized the moment. She fired the line, launching it right at the Phantom. The unggoy gunner shrieked aloud as he saw the giant hook speeding towards him. He ducked down, but the grapple missed him entirely. Instead, it embedded itself into the ceiling of the troop carrying section of the craft. The unggoy must've been laughing nervously at his good fortune for the moment, it would not last.

As soon as Taq launched the hook, Master Chief, Kat and Kelly had rushed up into position. The second it was taught, they hooked onto the line, activating the motorized pulleys. In an instant, they rushed upwards towards the Phantom, precariously dangling in mid-air as they clutched to the pulleys with one hand and aimed their weapons with the other. The unggoy on the side gun must've seen this, but he was too late to stop it. Before he could even level his gun on the Master Chief, the Spartan unleashed a burst of bullets from his assault rifle that took the little methane breather down.

Other nearby Phantoms and their passengers took some shots at the rapidly ascending Spartans, but their shields protected them for the most part. Kelly and Kat both fired back in retaliation, trying to supress the incoming fire, but they soon had new targets. Chief boarded the Phantom, kicking one of the Elites in the face and sending him flying out the other side of the craft. He locked his rifle with the talons of another Elite, as both Kelly and Kat jumped aboard.

"Cockpit, now!" He ordered them both.

Both Spartans rushed the cockpit, firing on the grunts in their way and pushing past the Elites that tried to stop them. Most of the unggoy opted to take their chances jumping out than staying to face the onslaught of three demons currently rushing their transport. The real test were the pilots of course, two Elites with no such desire to abandon ship.

Kelly unloaded her assault rifle into one, even as he jerked hard left to try and unbalance them. The result was Chief and the Elite he was struggling with tumbling to the floor of the craft, a few more Covenant soldiers falling right out of the Phantom itself and both female Spartans bashing into the walls of the cockpit.

Luckily, Kat, now laying against the wall, was more than prepared for the close-quarters brawl. She fired an overload attack from her robotic arm, decimating the shields of both sangheili pilots. Kelly, clutching onto co-pilot's chair, then pulled her pistol and fired point blank into both of the Elites' heads. As they slumped in their chairs, the Phantom began to spin wildly out of control. Kelly reacted quickly, grabbing the controls from the dead pilot and pushing them back up into a stable position. Kelly removed the corpse promptly and let Kat take the controls proper.

"We have the Phantom," she shouted back at Chief. "How many unwanted passengers are left?"

"Enough!" Chief responded in kind, blocking the strike of one Elite as it tried to punch him.

A follow up punch nearly unbalanced the Spartan, but he remained steadfast. The wild pitching of the craft had caused him to lose his gun, but he didn't need one to hold his own. Unfortunately there was more than one Elite in the Phantom though and this one had a Plasma sword. As he advanced on the Chief, the Spartan went over options in his head. He could duck the first swing, maybe get behind the Covie and knock his head in. Maybe goad the unarmed Elite into a well-timed strike that would cause the sword wielder to cut his own comrade in half.

However, neither option was needed as a blast of blue rammed into the Elite from behind, sending him flying right out of the Phantom altogether. Commander Shepard touched down onto the floor of the Phantom next, his well timed Biotic Charge more than appreciated. Chief was now free to block the next hit from his other Elite opponent, crossing his arms over his head to prevent the alien from breaking through his helmet.

"Need some help?" Shepard asked.

Chief merely rushed the Elite in the middle of one the punches, slamming him against a wall. The Spartan then grabbed the Elite by his armor's collar and violently shoved him out the open side door of the craft.

"All good, sir," Chief assured him.

Shepard just nodded and turned to the cockpit.

"Take us down!" He ordered.

The Phantom was now under fire from several sources, but its shields and armor held. Once it rocketed to the ground floor, most of the attacking Covenant stopped shooting. There was still too great a risk they'd damage their precious relic it seemed. All at once, everyone piled into the Phantom, as plasma rained down around their position. Halsey took a seat along the back wall, clutching the crystal as Taq took residence beside her. Anton and Fred took over the gunner positions while Zaeed, Jun and Linda took over sniper duty on either side of the Phantom's doors.

"Lot of dropships between us and our exit," Chief reminded Kelly and Kat. "Do not stop for anything, even after we're out. Whatever happens, keep flying."

"Don't need to tell me twice, Chief," Kelly assured, already in the co-pilot's chair.

The Phantom rose again, lifting from the floor and speeding towards the daylight at the top of the shaft. Every remaining Covie controlled Phantom moved to intercept, with light fire from nearby Covenant soldiers along the various galleries joining in. Kelly took up main weapons controls and responded with a hail of plasma fire from the Phantom's guns. She either dispersed or killed several Covenant soldiers as they made their way up the shaft.

The other Phantoms opened fire as they climbed, blasting everything they had at the hijacked dropship in unison. Their fire seemed to be concentrated on the engines, trying to damage or disable them. If those went, they'd fall back to terra firma. Perhaps they were hoping the relic would survive the fall. Either way, they couldn't let that happen.

Zaeed opened fire on the nearest Phantom to circle in, using his sniper rifle to take down the gunner with a well placed headshot. He then raked the passenger deck with fire, Jun joined in as well. The Phantom still managed to move into a position to open fire with its main guns regardless though, but Grunt wasn't about to let that happen. Taking the rocket launcher off his back, the krogan aimed right for the starboard engine of the enemy craft and let loose a barrage. The missiles impacted with the Phantom's engine, destroying it in a glorious fireball. The result was the enemy craft listed hard to the right and smashed into another Phantom, causing both to explode.

"Ha ha! Yes!" Grunt said exuberantly "Two for one!"

Grunt's celebration ended when renewed fire from one of the galleries raked the side door. Anton quickly responded, unleashing the heavy plasma cannon's fire onto the enemy positions.

"Kelly! Kat! Could you two hurry it up a little?" He asked.

"They keep blocking our exit," Kat called back. "We're trying to clear them!"

Linda leaned out the side of the Phantom's door to see for herself. Indeed there were a few Phantoms blocking their ascent. They needed to fix that promptly and she had an idea as to how. She briefly leaned back in to call up to the cockpit.

"Get me on level with the cockpit of one!" She ordered them. "I can get us an opening!"

"Fine, whatever you're doing make it quick though," Kat told her. "Leveling off into target range."

Their Phantom moved into a position that gave Linda a decent line of sight onto one of the enemy's cockpits. This was going to require a lot of precision. With the sustained fire from one of the galleries though, not an easy task. She turned to Fred on the gun behind her.

"Keep them off me," she told him.

"Got your back," he assured her.

Fred's plasma fire raked the gallery, ripping through several unggoy and taking down one very defiant Elite. Linda now had her window of opportunity, she scanned for the Covenant cockpit and took careful aim. Phantoms had incredibly thick armored plating, protecting the pilots inside while several screens showed you the outside. However, armor could be whittled down, especially with the right tools. Her sniper rifle was capable of cutting deep into heavily armored targets. She had disabled many a Covenant vehicle with it, all it took was knowing where to shoot.

Linda fired once on the cockpit, then again, aiming for the same spot. She kept firing, hitting the same spot twice more before reloading. After three more shots, she took a deep breath, held it and then loosed her final round. The bullet burst through the armor plating at last and ravaged the cockpit within, possibly killing the pilot. Linda could only attest to what she saw, the Phantom pitched suddenly into one of the galleries along the underground shaft, crashing into it and killing any who were still taking up positions there.

"Go for the opening, now!" She called out to Kelly and Kat.

"Way ahead of you, Lin," Kelly assured.

The Phantom boosted up towards the hole in the enemy perimeter, speeding towards the exit with reckless abandon. One of the Phantoms moved to intercept, but Kat refused to waver.

"Full power to the thrusters," she declared, flipping several switches. "Kelly, lay into him with everything left in the main gun!"

"On it!" Kelly answered. "Everyone back there, hold on!"

The Phantom climbed high and steep, everyone bracing against the sides of the craft. They brushed past the enemy dropship, slashing into their side with a devastating screech of metal. Even with that deafening sound though, Chief swore he felt a series of thumps against their roof.

"Did anyone else hear-?"

"Yeah," Shepard said, cutting in. "I think I did."

Swinging in from on top, kicking Anton off his gunner position, was a single Elite, armed with a plasma sword. He lashed out an attack at Zaeed, who just barely avoided getting his head sliced clean off. He fired a concussion shot at the Elite, sending him flying out from whence he came and down to the bottom of the shaft now far below them, but two more Elites soon replaced him. One opened fire with dual plasma rifles, the other charged towards the Master Chief with a Plasma Sword.

The Spartan leader ducked the incoming slash, and then brought a hammering elbow strike down along the Covie's back. The Elite turned to attack, but in his singular focus on the Master Chief he left his side open for Commander Shepard, who delivered a biotic punch to the side of the alien's face. This was followed up, fairly quickly, by the Master Chief kicking the alien in the jaw. Battered and dazed, Shepard let loose a biotic throw that sent the alien tumbling out of the craft.

The other Elite was dealt with when Jun opened fire on him with his pistol, breaking his focus from the attack. That gave Grunt and opening. He charged he Covie, headbutting him in the stomach. The sangheili stumbled back momentarily before the krogan brought out his shotgun and blasted him with it at point blank range. The force of the shot, sent the Elite tumbling out of the craft's open side door, bloodied and beaten.

It seemed like they were in the clear, when huge green plumes of plasma sudden burst forth around them. Fuel Rod Cannon shots, the Covenant were getting desperate to stop them. Even if it cost them the crystal relic, for some the cost of losing the relic was now too high. Jun, returning to his position, quickly locked on to the arching fuel rod shots, trying to trace their origin.

"Get them off us or we won't make it!" Kelly called back to the sharpshooters.

Jun eventually spotted one of the Fuel Rod cannon shooters, an unggoy, rushing through the crowded galleries below and taking pot shots where he could.

"I got one," he called out.

He took careful aim, even as the Phantom pitched and leaned in its evasive maneuvers. With a single shot he ended the unggoy's explosive assault, striking him clean through the heart.

Zaeed, who had gotten back to his original sharpshooter position, also found one of the potential threats. This one was more dug in, however, hiding behind some rocks as he opened fire. Zaeed didn't have a good shot on him, but he did have a good shot on a stalactite just over the gas sucker's head. He opened fire on it instead, blasting it free of the cavern roof. The rocks descended and crushed the Covie, ceasing his Fuel Rod assault.

The way to the exit of the shaft was now plainly clear. Kat and Kelly punched it hard, pushing the Phantom's engines to their limits as they rocketed past the last few offending dropships in their way. They burst forth from the underground shaft, emerging into the skies above Reach. As soon as they felt they free and clear of Covenant threat, they leveled off and and eased the Phantom's ascent.

"Well, that was touch and go for a hot minute," Kelly observed.

"Just a minute?" Kat asked, turning around to face the back of the cockpit. "Is everyone okay back there?"

Shepard did a quick head count before answering.

"A bit bruised, but we're all okay," he assured them. "Set course for Castle Base. We need to pick up the Admiral and get the hell off this planet."

"Might be a slight hitch in that plan, Shepard," Zaeed warned, as he gazed out the open door. "Take a look."

Shepard and Chief marched over to his position and saw what merited the foreboding tone of the old mercenary. Out of the blackened dust of Reach's devastated horizon, there appeared several Covenant ships of all sizes and makes. And they were all moving on a trajectory towards their position, towards Castle Base. The Covenant in the caverns below had called in their discovery and their leadership had responded in kind.

"I don't think they're going to let us leave, guys," Cortana quipped aloud over the radio.

"Raise the _Normandy_ , Cortana," Shepard requested. "We might need some help on this."

* * *

Zek was still processing it all. Of all the plans he thought Zhoc had, this was never one he considered. For a moment he thought the old bird was messing with him. As he looked at the Pirate Lord's self-assured and satisfied face though, he knew it was true.

"You want to unite the Pirate Clans under Covenant rule?" He asked. "Why? You don't believe in their garbage religion anymore than I do!"

"I don't have to believe in it," Zhoc claimed. "I'm looking at this from a purely economical standing, spirituality is the last thing on my mind. The fact is, the Covenant is the single strongest governing force in the entire Galaxy. It is simply more profitable to be in their employ than to be against them."

"It's really not," Retz informed him. "This is coming from two kig-yar who know what Covenant stewardship is like."

"Because you had nothing to offer but a single ship," Zhoc informed them. "Of course you got the raw end of the deal. With the Syndicate under my heel, the fleets of the Pirate Clans would be mine to command. And with the added devastating power of the Cutlass in my hand, the Covenant would have no choice but to come to the bargaining table once I make my offer."

Zek just chortled. He knew Zhoc could be arrogant, that came with being a pirate, but presuming that he'd have any kind of say was laughable. Even with the Cutlass and the fleets of the Syndicate, what made him think he had any chance at securing any better deal than countless other powerful Pirates forced to bend the knee? Yet he seemed so confident of his chances. Why?

"So you end up with a Sangheili overseer controlling your entire destiny while the fucking Prophets scream sermons in your ears," Zek joked sardonic. "Sounds like a real step up in the world."

"You're not listening, Zek," Zhoc growled. "The sangheili are on their way out. I've seen the ripples. Those damn warrior cultists are losing their standing. It will only take the proper stimulus to convince the Prophets of their failure. The hierarchy will shift, violently, dramatically and that's the best chance the kig-yar will ever have in centuries. The chance to climb the ladder and take their rightful place above those disgusting warmongering bastards at long last."

His anger seemed to have given way to elation and excitement, a sinister smile reaching up along his beak.

"Think of it, Zek," he began. "My heel on the very neck of the sangheili, ordering them around, casting them off into pointless deaths and battles. Their armor stripped and their weapons ours to do with as we please. No longer barely above cannon fodder with those gas sucking little idiot unggoys, we'd have true power and the chance to lord it over the sangheili at long last."

It was then that things became clear. Zek remembered how Zhoc had gotten into the position he now held. How he became Snarlbeak. Why he hated the sangheili so much. Why he wanted this. It was so obvious, Zek was shocked he hadn't realized it all sooner.

"This is about your sister," he realized. "Isn't it?"

Zhoc expression returned to a more dour and disquieting one, his gleeful joy at the idea of an oppressed and broken sangheili brought low by painful memories. He took a moment to compose himself, and then let himself speak openly.

"Zvaz was the only family I ever had," he stated. "The only bird I could ever say I loved. Sibling love, a bond between blood that cannot be broken. As an only child, I don't expect you to understand that, Zek. You never had a mother who abandoned you. Or a father who beat you, who treated you like shit for no good reason. Who came back from his plundering drunk off his ass on ichor and decided to finish things off by making me bleed. And who shared in that pain? Who did her best to protect me from it? Who inevitably gutted the bastard in the middle of one of his worst rages against me? Zvaz did. She was more than my sister, she was the only real mother I ever had."

Zek stood silent, even as the rage started to boil over in Zhoc's eyes.

"And then they took her from me," the old pirate sneered. "Struck her down in her prime like she was garbage. They destroyed my family and I swore I would avenge that death. I swore I would make them bleed slow and long until their entire race was but a shell of its former glory."

"What does the Syndicate have to do with that?" Retz asked. "It was a sangheili mercenary who murdered your sister. Why drag them down into your revenge?"

"Because it's how it should be!" Zhoc declared angrily. "Zvaz was destined for greater things than what she had! I was the brains behind her rule, sure, but I never questioned my place. I knew one day she would rise to prominence, take the head of the Syndicate for herself. Everyone knew that, even the queens knew it! But they denied her every attempt! Refused our admittance into any of their clans! They saw her ambition and feared it! Feared how her ascendence would cost them their power!"

Zhoc finally settled down, his anger only slightly subsiding.

"Now Zvaz is dead and the throne that rightfully belonged to her is sat upon by an aged queen who still thinks herself a defender of an age long since past and gone," he explained, practically spitting as he did. "She could've brought us into a new era, made us a greater power. Well, if Zvaz cannot have the throne, I will take it in her stead. My sister will be avenged in full, everything denied to her I will achieve. It will not bring her back, but in some small way... she gets the last laugh against all of them."

"And you really think she'd want you to use the Cutlass to basically enslave us to the Covenant's bullshit?" Zek asked in kind.

"What's the alternative?" Zhoc asked, sneering as he did. "A bunch of old hens sitting around and governing how Pirates live from the shadows? How has that worked out for us so far? They fight so hard to maintain a semblance of a status quo that our entire society has stagnated. They keep saying it's about preserving the traditions and the legacy of piracy in the face of annihilation. All they've accomplished is an eternal stalemate born out of nostalgia for something they never had. The Golden Age is dead, Zek. It died a long time ago. If kig-yar piracy is to survive, it must evolve. That means getting on the winning team."

"I don't consider joining the Covenant winning," Zek informed him. "From what I experienced it's more like bleeding to death while suffocating."

Zhoc just rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Such a lack of foresight," he groaned in frustration. "In the position of power alongside the Prophets we can direct policy, organize proper raids, exploit their system for our own ends. In time, we could even supplant the Prophets themselves. Run the whole damn show even, if we play our cards right."

"With you in charge of course," Retz noted, venom in his sarcastic tone.

Zhoc could only smile proudly at the very prospect in response, the sardonic ire ignored entirely .

"Of course me, I'd have the Cutlass and it was I who helped Zvaz build her empire in the first place," he declared. "Think of what my talent at logistics could do at the head of the Covenant war machine. Think of all I can do for the kig-yar race with the Cutlass in my claws. We'd be reborn, remade... stronger than ever."

Zek slammed his fist down on his chair in anger, he had heard just about enough of this disgusting plan.

"You're selling us out, old man! That's all you're doing!" He shouted in a rage at the pirate lord. "The pirate life is about freedom! Pure and simple liberty! You're trying to tie us to a fucking system of bullshit rules and laws! And for what? So you can feel better about how your sister got screwed over by life?"

"Zvaz would agree with this plan," Zhoc declared unwaveringly, his voice booming across the comm-channel. "She was a visionary, like me! We must change if we are to truly thrive!"

"Fuck that!" Zek screeched back at him. "I refuse to ever work under the thumb of those long-necked pieces of shit! Never again! It's not happening, old man! Even if you do somehow get the Cutlass, no one will follow you into that fucked up future of yours!"

"As if you're any different, Zek," Zhoc chortled. "You just chose the side that's about to lose everything."

Zek's faced turned sour. It took a solid second or two for him to realize what the old pirate was getting at.

"What? The humans? I'm not working for them," he insisted. "It's a business arrangement."

"Ha! Please," Zhoc laughed derisively. "All you've done is trade one master for another. Specifically, you've accepted a partnership with a species that is not long for this galaxy. You know as well as I do that the humans are going to lose this little war. The Covenant can't be stopped. Why even entertain notions of an alliance with a race that is about to go extinct?"

"Maybe I just like rooting for the underdog a little," Zek shrugged. "Better than signing away the soul of piracy to get an extra fucking cred or two."

Zhoc could only shake his head in dismay.

"You're so naive, Zek," he stated, a despondent look on his face. "It's just so sad, you have so much potential and you're throwing it away like an idiot. Fooling yourself into thinking you can play this game with them. As soon as they get the chance, the humans will dump you like rotten razorfin chum and leave you for dead."

"Maybe I'll dump them first," Zek claimed. "Who can say? I'm a bit of a gambler in any case. So I'll take my chances with the xenophobic hairless apes for now. At least I don't feel nearly as shitty about helping them out. Never could say the same when I was the lap dog of the Covenant."

"It will end badly, Zek," Zhoc warned. "Whatever your hopes are, whatever dreams of fortune and glory you have, they're doomed to failure. Same as your freedom, it's fleeting. Your father learned that the hard way."

Zek just stuck his tongue out, dismissively sticking his tongue out at the very mention of his dad.

"Like I give a fuck about what that dipshit learned," he said grimacing. "He's dead, I'm still here. That's all I care about."

"But you should give a fuck, Zek," Zhoc claimed, placing his talons together as he grinned. "Because you see, even now, you're more like him than you think."

Zek's brow furrowed in anger at the notion.

"Bull, I'm nothing like him," he asserted through a gritted beak.

"Oh but you are, Zek, far too much like him," Zhoc claimed most confidently. "You see, I know the truth."

"Truth about what?" Zek asked, his disgusted tone ever apparent.

Zhoc simply smiled sinisterly.

"I know what truly killed the great Captain Dread Feather."

* * *

The trip to Castle Base wasn't terribly long, but it certainly felt like it. The impending dread of approaching Covenant reinforcements was not exactly a good one. Kat had managed to disable to tracking beacon for the Phantom, but it was a temporary fix. The Covenant would be scouring the area now, intent on finding the Crystal and killing the infidels who had dared to take it from them.

That was hardly the worst of it though, as Cortana soon informed Shepard.

"I keep contacting the fleet, _Normandy_ included, but I'm getting no response," she explained. "I don't think the signal is being dropped, but there may be some interference on their end. The other likely scenario is that they are unable to contact us as the situation in the system has become problematic."

"You think they've grown suspicious of the _Ascendant_?" Shepard asked the AI.

"The Covenant chatter says they're contacting home, trying to get confirmation on the Carrier's status," Cortana replied. "I imagine if they don't know it has been hijacked yet they will soon. Holland likely would've taken them out of range of enemy scanners if the risk of discovery became to great. Until I hear from them though it's all speculation on my part."

It wouldn't matter though, not as far as the _Normandy_ was concerned at least. Shepard's crew wouldn't abandon them, not if they believed there was a way to reach them on the surface.

"How long until your crew decides you've been out of contact too long?" Chief asked the Commander bluntly.

"At this point, not long," Shepard assured him. "Miranda won't appreciate such a big gap in scheduled check ins and Joker is probably already itching for the go signal along with Garrus. I'd just like to warn them what they're dealing with before they jump into the fire with us."

"Then maybe we need a way off this planet before their hand gets forced," Chief suggested. "This Phantom can reach orbit, can't it?"

"Yeah, but with all the bad guys in the sky it will be a choppy takeoff," Shepard warned. "If we're spotted..."

"They'll send everything they have at us just to recover the crystal, I know," Chief agreed. "We need a way through their blockade."

"If this transport has a stealth drive it would be easier," Shepard stated.

"Well, maybe we're already headed in the right direction."

The two men looked over to Halsey, still huddled near Taq, clutching the crystal in her hands.

"Castle Base had a project it was running," she explained. "Confiscated Covenant Cloaking tech, recovered from some of their ships we destroyed. I'm no engineer, but in theory one could be jury rigged to work for a short time with a Phantom dropship."

It was a better plan than nothing, and they still had to pick up Whitcomb and his people at the rendezvous anyway. Chief, however, had to be sure there was a better chance than maybe. Cortana gave him the answer.

"It's a dicey procedure, but you can make the tech work for this dropship," she assured. "Chances are the system burns out within thirty minutes as the Phantom's coolant systems can't keep up with the massive heat sink and various power couplings maintaining the field around the ship with give way. The device is meant for capital ships after all, not Phantoms. The power supply isn't there. However, short term cloaking is doable and would get us beyond the atmosphere at least. Maybe high enough to get into range of the fleet."

That was all Chief needed to hear, he looked to the cockpit.

"Kat, you're all about tech. Can you pull it off?"

"With some help, sure," she promised. "But you have to find me the damn thing first though. I trust they're intact?"

"About as intact as you can get for something that came out of a blown up ship," Halsey informed her.

"Good enough," the Spartan replied. "Castle Base is coming up, taking us to rendezvous with Whitcomb's position."

Castle Base itself was in relatively one piece, but not by much. Most of it had been seemingly ransacked or used for target practice. The superstructure remained standing, but the scars of battle were visible everywhere. Smashed walls, broken windows, collapsed platforms around the exterior, the place had seen better days. The only sign of life was a small grouping of Marines around one of the landing pads up on top of the building.

"Looks stable enough if they're standing on it," Kelly reasoned.

"Taking us down," Kat reported.

The Phantom touched down on the pad, Whitcomb was already there waiting for them as they walked out of the dropship. His eyes quickly latched onto to Halsey, who had bothered to force her way to the front of the group.

"Doctor Halsey, didn't expect to see you again," he said to her graciously. "Not alive anyway."

"I like surprising people, hopefully we have a few more up our sleeves," she declared. "We'll need it to get out of here. Have you been able to secure the base?"

"We did what we could," Whitcomb explained. "We're nowhere near the strength required to cover this position."

"I just need to know if the lower R&D levels appear to be intact," Halsey clarified astutely.

"Seemed like it from our sweeps," he replied. "Why's that?"

"We have a plan to sneak past the enemy patrols and make it back into space," Shepard explained. "But we need one of the stealth drives being researched here to make it work."

Whitcomb just nodded, not that he had many other options to suggest of course.

"So long as it gets us out of here alive," he reasoned. "How long do you think it will take to get us airborne?"

"I'll need to see what we got to work with," Kat replied. "We should head down there now if we want to get started as soon as possible."

Chief nodded and looked to Kelly who was already starting to follow Kat inside. He hoped they could work fast, even from here he could see the amassing Covenant ships scouring the area over the horizon. They weren't glassing anything yet, but Chief imagined it wouldn't be long until they did. However, there was a more immediate threat towards them.

"Hey, people," Zaeed spoke up, standing near the ledge with a pair of high powered binoculars. "We might have some guests coming over."

Shepard and Chief walked over as the old merc handed his Commander the binoculars. Peering through them, Shepard watched over the scattered remnants of the mountain forest, as Phantoms began to land amidst the brush.

"Ground units, probably moving in on the base itself," he observed. "They're trying to minimize the risk of destroying the crystal as much as possible."

Even Chief could see the Phantoms from his position, he didn't need binoculars to know how bad this potentially was.

"There are enough dropships in there to field dozens of squads," he warned.

"Company strength at least," Cortana chimed in. "More than enough to overrun us."

"We need to keep them at bay," Shepard reasoned. "Distract them away from the landing pad and bottleneck their forces on the way to it."

"I can pull up a map of Castle Base and give you some good positions to set up at," Cortana offered. "Beyond that though, it's a matter of holding the line."

Chief was already pulling the numbers in his head. Kat and Kelly would need each other's help along with Halsey to get the drive up and running in the Phantom. That only left him with four other Spartans and Shepard's squad. None of Whitcomb's people were in any condition to assist. Already, a strategy had formed.

"The Covenant will make a beeline to fight any Spartans specifically," he suggested. "They'll suspect we're protecting the crystal ourselves. We can direct the majority of their forces away while you set up a bottleneck to prevent any other squads who might have more initiative."

"Alright, but if things get too hot, make sure you have an escape plan," Shepard told him. "A way to fall back to us if it all goes to hell."

"Cortana can find us a path," Chief assured. "Don't worry, I'll be back at the dropship before it goes too far south."

Shepard just chuckled.

"Actually, I'm kinda hoping you back track to my position first," he jokingly corrected. "With my luck it's not going to be long before the other half of their forces find their way to my doorstep."

Chief just nodded at the bit of levity and turned to his Spartans. Once again, it was time to live up to their namesake.

* * *

"I had been working with your father for decades at this point," Zhoc began, a hint of warmth in his voice for once. "He was a good client, always paid his debts, never went back on deals, gave me a cut of various leads I acquired for him. Hell, he helped set up a lot of my early logistical holdings, cleared a lot of routes for me. So I had gotten into the habit of never really asking him questions and when he requested a ton of ship upgrades for his flotilla I didn't ask what they were for. In retrospect, I probably should've been more inquisitive."

Zek wasn't sure why he was bothering to listen. Even now, he cared so little about his father's legacy that it it really didn't matter to him. He had never asked Zhoc to share stories of his dad, content to his father's former connections as nothing more than a way to get a leg up on some matters. This was the first time Zhoc had ever really shared anything about his dad on his own accord though. That was enough to make Zek wonder. What was so important about this story?

"While we were finalizing the deal, Dread Feather and I sat down for drinks," Zhoc continued reverently. "It didn't take long for him to start talking. He kept going on about the good old days, the Golden Age. How kig-yar once charted their own destinies, with nothing but their spirit of adventure, drive for fortune and lust for glory. He felt like we had lost so much, gained so little, that nothing was improving and we just kept bleeding while pretending we could scrape out a living. He didn't seem angry about it though, he was more sad at how we had 'lost our way', as he claimed. In the end, I just kept nodding and agreeing with him before he finally said goodbye as the deal finalized and everything was installed on his ships."

"What kind of things were installed?" Retz asked curiously, much to Zek's disgruntlement. He just wanted to get to the point so Zhoc would shut up already.

"Weapons systems, armor enhancements, shield upgrades, the things you'd need if you were going on a high value raid," Zhoc explained. "Or, in Dread Feather's case... war. The last time I ever saw him in the flesh was that day he walked out of my bar on the Hollow. The last time I saw him period though, was when I got this message, sent over my private line."

Zhoc hit a few buttons on his console, transmitting an old holo-message to Zek's computer. In moments, a tiny image of a kig-yar, dressed in battle scarred armor, with crimson, black-tipped feathers covering the top of his head, a chipped beak and a patch over one badly scarred eye, appeared on the console. Zek already knew who it was from the pictures his mother had kept of the bastard.

" _Pirates of the galaxy, hear me now!"_ Dread Feather declared in a fearlessly authoritative voice. _"I am Dread Feather! You may know of me by my deeds, my raids, my stories of plunder. All of which pale in comparison to the glories of old! When kig-yar sailed both sea and then void with no fear in their hearts. The pursuit of our fortunes all that guided us! A time when we were free to chart our own courses! A time that was stolen from us by aliens who forced us into a damnable Covenant! A contract that has robbed us of what we are! I have tried to live up to the ideals of our ancestors. To keep what they began alive! I have come the realization, however, that I and others like me have all failed to accomplish this. We squeak out these existences for ourselves, not taking risks, sticking to small earnings, venturing into markets beneath the notices of the Covenant. We hide and run and sneak, all saying it is necessary if we wish to survive. Well I'm done surviving! I want to live! I want us all to live again as we once were!"_

Zek looked to Retz, breaking his momentary stare with the hologram. He wanted to see what his old friend thought of all this. Retz could only shrug in bemusement, his own shock apparent.

" _The Covenant think us weak and pathetic!"_ Dread Feather screeched. _"That we can be cowed and tamed and marginalized! That they have already beaten us down! I say no! Together amassed, the kig-yar are stronger than any of their fleets! United, the forces of the Pirate Clans, working together, can bring their empire crashing down around them and see our blackened endless skies free once more to pillage at our discretion! I ask you all now, to join me! I have the weapons, the numbers, the plan! Together, as one, we can free ourselves once more! We can bring back the Golden Age! Witness the dawn of a new era for yourselves! Come to these coordinates and you will see the age of piracy reborn anew!"_

Zhoc cut the message off there, leaving Zek relatively stunned.

"Dread Feather's transmission was intercepted, I was one of the very few who actually got the thing," Zhoc stated. "The Covenant ambushed his sneak attack on a military convoy and, doubtlessly thinking he would soon be joined by fellow Pirates who shared his ideals, he stayed to fight it out and prove to all kig-yar the Covenant could be beaten. That's why he didn't take the deal to join them, even when it was obvious he didn't stand a chance. He believed he had an ace up his sleeve, a cause."

Zek said nothing, his mind mulling over the revelation as Zhoc continued.

"All this time you thought your father died selfishly, to cement himself in legend, getting his whole flotilla murdered because he refused to accept that he was outmatched," the old pirate stated. "In reality, he died because he had become infected with idealism. He died because he felt serving the Covenant wasn't a life worth living and out of the vain, pathetic hope that other Pirates would come to lay down their lives for a stupid dream."

Zek understood what the old bird was getting at. He was drawing a parallel or at least attempting to. It sickened him, made Zek want to wretch. He refused, he wouldn't give Old Scratch the satisfaction. So he did the next best thing, denial.

"So what?" He asked. "You think this makes me like him? I'm not out to start a revolution."

"You're out to carve a slice of freedom pie for yourself and you'd rather die than be a 'slave' to the Covenant again," Zhoc reiterated plainly. "In my eyes that makes you more like your father than you give yourself credit for."

Zek slammed his fist on his chair and stood up violently from it.

"Take it back!" He demanded. "You take that back! I am nothing like that fucking asshole! He abandoned my mother! He abandoned us!"

"As I recall you did that to Taq once yourself," Zhoc sinisterly mocked as he laid back in his chair. "So really, my guess is you didn't fall too far from the tree at all. So how long before you decide a revolution IS what you want, Zek? Because honestly you're on that path already. No one goes after the Cutlass just to kick back and take it easy after they're done. No one joins a group of desperate primates on their way out against an enemy that is glassing them from the face of the galaxy without some acceptance of where that leads."

Zek sifted angrily through his beak, breathing harder and harder as he tried to block Zhoc out of his head. Retz eventually grabbed his shoulder, shaking his head. It was what calmed him down at last.

"Dread Feather is dead because he tried to defy the inevitable, my plan at least preserves a semblance of what we are and gives us a higher status in the ruling order," Zhoc declared. "I don't have a cause, Zek, I have a plan, there's a difference. Causes are born of dreamers and if you have any smarts in that head of yours, you'll wake from the dream you're languishing under and give this up. Now, before you join your father in his fool's errand."

Zek turned back to the screen, his anger gone, replaced with purpose and drive. When he looked on Zhoc now, he did not see Snarlbeak at all. He just saw the amalgamation of everything he hated from his life under the heel of the Covenant. A life that was now trying to claw him back in, stomp him down and destroy him. Only this time, it wore the face of salvation. In reality... more empty promises. And he was done with those.

"My father was a fool, an idiot and an asshole," he declared. "But if he got one thing right in his miserable excuse for a life, it was that he knew that freedom ain't something you throw away. I did that once, never happening again. You might think what I want is a stupid dream, Snarlbeak, but it's mine at least. And it doesn't come at the cost of everything else I believe in either. You wanna sell out and say it's for sister dearest? Go ahead, but you'll have to fight me every step of the way from now on. I swear it."

"Then you're siding with the humans and their all but certain extinction?" Zhoc laughed. "How is serving them any different than the Covenant? You die sooner? Is that your preference? A quick demise?"

"I'm not siding with the humans, I'm siding with whatever it is that pisses you and your future bosses off the most," Zek adamantly stated. "I won't fight a war for either side, but I will fight to keep what I have! Currently that means a relic and soon enough a Cutlass. And once I get it, I'm finding you, Zhoc and I'm running you right the fuck through with it."

Zhoc, to his credit, didn't seem at all threatened or angry at the statement. He just sighed.

"Such a waste of potential," he said, sounding so disappointed. "You really are like your father. Well, at least I'll be quicker than the Covenant were when they killed him."

The screen minimized, revealing the face of Zon Gak once again, still patiently sitting in his own captain's chair.

"Zon, disable his ship," Zhoc ordered. "Force him to tell us where the relic is... then kill him."

"By your order, Snarlbeak," Zon replied.

Zhoc's image soon vanished, leaving only Zon's mug to fill the screen. While the company had not improved at all, Zek figured he could at least work with this situation now that Snarlbeak had left matters in the hands of an underling. He could manage an underling.

"So much for bombarding, huh?" Zek asked. "You can't exactly interrogate me if I'm blown to atoms."

"I can flush you out, idiot," Zon assured. "I still outnumber you in ships and firepower."

"Ooh, big bird, gonna shoot randomly and hope I scare, huh?" Zek chuckled derisively. "Some strategy. Come on, douche. Where's your fucking stones? You want me? Come in here and take me."

Zek cut the transmission then and there, silencing the Zon before he could yap about how superior he was or some other such nonsense. Hopefully, he'd take the bait.

"So our plan is to goad him into bringing his forces into the debris field, I take it?" Varvok asked.

"Where his sensors will be even more scrambled and his maneuvering options will be limited," Zek added. "But it's the only way he can disable our ship and board us without possibly killing us in the process. He knows that, I've just forced the issue a bit with some insults."

"Our cloak can keep us off his radar for a time, but chances are he knows about it," Retz warned. "We can't be certain Zhoc hasn't outfitted his ships with anti-stealth tech."

"Yeah, but he'll be looking for a Corvette," Zek reminded him. "He only thinks he knows all the angles, but unlike dear old dad, I got an actual ace up our sleeve. One that doesn't require a hope and a prayer."

Activating a secure comm-channel, he contacted McKay back at the ONI station.

"Captain, how are things down there?" He asked.

" _Set to leave, but I'm assuming that our party crashers are still a problem."_

"Astute as ever, Captain, but no worries, I got a plan," Zek assured her. "Bring that Prowler back here with you, and as many of those improvised explosives your rebel friends left behind. I'll explain when you get here."

As he closed communications, Zek next turned to Varvok.

"Four-Eyes, I'm gonna need your saboteur expertise on this one," he told the batarian. "You ever fly stealth missions?"

Varvok just grinned.

"More than a few," he replied. "Just tell me what you need from me and my people. We'll handle the rest."

* * *

The central courtyard of Castle Base was in rough shape. The rubble, debris and destroyed vehicles dotted the area, turning it into a relative maze. As unappealing as it looked though, it had made the place a perfectly serviceable defensible area. There was plenty of cover, lots of ways to flank the enemy and a number of perches for a sniper to relocate to if need be. For the Master Chief, the only real concern was getting the Covenant to run headlong into it rather than head straight into the base proper. For that, he was relying on Linda and Jun. Both had taken up positions in the partially destroyed raised overlook platform nearby. They were keeping their eyes peeled for the enemy to break cover and move on the base itself.

Down on the ground, Chief had already taken up a position in the debris field alongside Fred and Anton. They remained still, silent, waiting for Linda's signal. Already, Chief was planning out where they'd need to move to when the shooting started. There was a perfect flanking path the right of him with great concealment. If they could keep the Covenant's eyes off it, any one of them could get right behind them. So long as they were in the right place of course. As Chief contemplated this though he was contacted by Kelly over the radio.

" _Chief, good news, there was a working stealth drive in R &D, just as Halsey said,"_ she reported. _"Looks pretty banged up though. Installation might take a bit longer than we thought. Kat's on it and Halsey is helping us, but there's a lot of wires to uncross and the like."_

"It's alright, we can hold out for as long as you need us to," Chief assured her. "Just don't stop working for anything. We'll see you when this is done."

Chief scanned the courtyard again, his eyes peeled on the horizon. The Covenant seemed to be taking their sweet time moving in. Given their superior numbers, that was a lot more cautious of them than he expected them to be. More than likely they were trying to recon the target before the assault began.

"Fred, Anton, we need to conserve ammo on this," he warned. "Short controlled bursts, lead them in close enough to hit. The longer we hold them down here the more time Kelly and Kat have."

"Don't worry, Chief," Fred assured. "I got plenty of ammo to spare. Enough to fill this whole courtyard with Covie corpses."

" _We'll see how accurate that statement is soon enough, Fred,"_ Linda informed him over the radio. _"We got Covenant, headed right for the base."_

Chief couldn't see them from his position, but he trusted Linda's eyes more than his own for the moment.

"Find the highest ranking Elite among them," he ordered. "His subordinates will be forced to avenge him. It's the most likely way to force them over here."

" _Spotted him,"_ Linda reported. _"Head of the pack, flanked by some minor officers. He's in my sights, going loud in three, two..."_

The gunshot that rung out was soon followed by another and then a third.

" _Two confirmed, one injured,"_ Linda shouted over the radio. _"Whole wave now headed in on our position! Relocating to offer cover fire. Jun, keep your sights on the treeline!"_

Chief switched the safety off his assault rifle.

"Several movement contacts approaching fast," Cortana warned. "Seems Linda kicked the hornet's next pretty good."

"Just as planned," Chief stated, moving up to aim over his cover.

He soon spotted a number of grunts and their Elite handlers, as well as a few Jackals, moving into the courtyard, firing up at the platform above in case of snipers. Chief waited for one of the Elites to get a bit closer before letting loose with his rifle. The bullets slashed into the alien's shields and soon ripped through his body. As his body fell,the other Covenant soon rushed to cover as Anton and Fred opened fire as well.

Now the firefight was in full swing. The grunts scattered about, seeking safety, while the Elites tried to retain order. The Jackals huddled up, trying to push their way through the fire. Chief was already on them. He moved through the debris, darting from place to place, while Jun kept fire on the Jackal column. It kept them from spotting the Spartan leader, as he soon got behind them and unloaded into each with a trio of quick bursts that took them down.

"Everyone, spread out, fire and move," he ordered over the radio. "The more of us they think there are, the more confused and panicked their assault will get. Then we can break them."

" _Would be easier if we decapitated their command structure,"_ Linda suggested. _"I'm trying to get a line of sight on their Elites, but they're keeping their heads low. They're not giving me enough time to line something up."_

"Pinned is better than advancing," Chief informed her. "Keep them bottled up. Anton, Fred, move to flanking position, I'll keep their eyes off you."

Chief scanned the battlefield to find a pair of Elites dug in behind what was left of a burnt out Warthog. He moved in as close as possible before he opened up, firing a burst of suppression fire over their heads. The Elites returned the shots with some of their own, forcing Chief to take cover. He had still distracted them effectively enough. Cortana alerted him to Anton and Fred's positions with a waypoint on his HUD. They moved quickly through the debris dotting the area before coming up on the Elites' flank. Fred tossed in a grenade before Anton opened up with his rifle. The initial blast damaged the aliens' shields before Anton's bullets cut them down.

Nearby grunts soon scattered as their leaders fell, Chief picking them off as they broke cover. Even as they fell back though, the Spartans maintained their position. They were not about to chase them out into the open. The idea was to keep them pinned here, away from Shepard's position. However, the plan may have been working too well.

" _Chief, reinforcements are moving in on us,"_ Linda warned suddenly. _"Several squads, pushing up fast."_

"See if you and Jun can thin them out a little," Chief ordered. "Anton, Fred and I will reposition and catch them in the crossfire."

Chief moved back through the debris, setting himself up in the center, while Anton and Fred split up to the left and right of the courtyard respectively.

"Keeps your eyes open, pick your targets, zero in on them," Chief told them. "How are we on ammo?"

"Good for now, sir," Anton shouted out.

"Managing," Fred replied as well. "But I'm keeping an eye on the Covie guns they keep dropping, just in case."

Chief hoped it would come to that, but he knew how quick bullets seemed to run out when facing the Covenant. Thankfully, Linda and Jun could be counted on to cull a few of the enemies' numbers before they reached them. True to form he could already hear both of them taking shots at the incoming aliens.

Linda did not stay in one spot for long. She repeatedly fired and moved, never allowing the Covenant the chance to zero in. The idea was to make them think there were more of them, that their was their main line of defense and not a distraction. If they were concerned about several snipers, they'd be less inclined to move up so quickly. Well, maybe the grunts would at least, the Elites running the show rarely even flinched at the prospect of getting gunned down from afar.

She caught one such Elite as he made a dash for the courtyard proper, but he'd never reach it. She fired one shot that killed a grunt in front of the Covenant officer. In his haste to join the assault, he ended up tripping over his underling's corpse. When he next popped up, Linda buried another round through his brain. She moved again, letting Jun take over the next shot. He fired two clean shots, one after the other, killing two more Elites in quick succession.

When Linda readied her rifle again, she spotted a Jackal moving with his shield up and firing at the upper platforms of Castle Base. An Elite was near him, joining the fray. The weird thing was he was actually trying to take a lesson from his Jackal cohort, using shield gauntlet he had no doubt stolen from the body of a Jackal from earlier. Odd for an Elite, they didn't usually cower behind those things. Whatever his reasoning, it didn't matter, Linda had a way past it. She took at the Jackal's shield and fired just a bit off from center mass. The shot ricocheted off the shield, veering off sideways where embedded itself into the Elite's head.

He should've stuck to his own tricks instead of copying someone else, clearly.

Even with Jun and Linda's marksmanship though, enough of the Covenant slipped through to assault the courtyard directly. As they moved into the debris field, blasting away at everything, Chief threw out his own grenade. The blast erupted in the center of one of their squads. Once the grunts landed back onto the concrete and the Elites left alive picked themselves up, the Spartan Leader rushed out.

"Cover me!" He ordered.

Anton and Fred let loose with a barrage of bullets, hitting the Covenant squads from both ends. The Aliens were torn between two lines of fire and looked for cover where they could. That was when the Master Chief smashed headlong into their lines, smashing his rifle in the face of one Elite and unloading into him as he fell. He punched the nearest grunt who tried to assault him in turn, smacking him into a broken piece of Castle Base's structure. A Jackal rushed in to tackle him, but Chief merely forced the shield away and kicked the avian creature into a demolished shuttle.

Another Elite rushed at him, a plasma sword in one hand, a plasma pistol in the other. The alien slashed once, only for Chief to sidestep the assault with ease. He then smashed his rifle into the alien's shoulder from behind. As the Elite stumbled, he turned and charged his pistol. Chief was already ahead of him though, as he fired a clean shot from his rifle that blasted the weapon from the alien's hand.

The Elite clutched his fist in pain, blood pooling from his palm and fingers, but he remained resolute. He charged again, viciously swinging at the Spartan. Chief waited for his moment and rolled away from the third strike. As he did, he grabbed for the now discarded plasma pistol and charged it to full. The discharge of green energy decimated the alien's remaining shield and allowed Chief to unload what was left of his clip into the Elite's head.

As he dropped to the ground, a few grunts scattered, but one went crazed. He grabbed for his plasma grenades and charged the Master Chief. The Spartan was reloading, unable to do anything but back away. Then, several bullets struck the methane sucking creature from the side, causing him to drop dead as his grenades exploded around his corpse. Chief looked to where the shots had come from and saw Fred, giving him the thumbs up.

"Got your back, boss," he said.

Chief just nodded in gratitude and turned back to the battle. Except, there wasn't much battle to be found. The Covenant were pulling back, they had lost many squads, yes, but they seemed to be in full retreat from the area, only the Elites firing back as they ran away. Any other soldier would be cheering right now, but not him. Something was wrong about this, terribly wrong.

His instincts would be sadly proven correct.

" _Chief, it's Shepard,"_ the Commander's voice came in over the line. _"Some squads peeled off from the main group and found our position. They may have radioed it in."_

"I think they have, sir," Chief warned him. "You might have incoming."

" _No might about it, we do,"_ Shepard shouted aloud as gunfire could be heard over the radio. _"More Covenant squads moving in on us. Could use some assistance."_

"We're on our way, sir," Chief assured him. "Just hang on. Anton, Fred, with me. Linda, Jun, move along the upper balcony. Find their position and provide overwatch."

" _Already on it, moving to Shepard now,"_ Linda reported.

Chief rushed out of the courtyard, Anton and Fred beside him. They needed to get to Shepard and reinforce him quickly before he got overrun. He just hoped that Kat and Kelly were almost done with that cloak tech. They weren't going to be able to hold them off down here forever.

* * *

Zek had activated cloaking even before Zon Gak's ships had moved into the ring's debris field. They were initiating scans from the get go. Anything within immediate weapons range could be detected if they remained too close for too long. Zek had moved the _Fallen Serpent_ away from their search pattern, but with three ships scouring the area for one Corvette, it was honestly just a matter of time before they got spotted. If Zon was still monitoring their comm-link signal, maybe even sooner. So if they were going to pull this off, everything needed to go off without a hitch.

"Forgive me if I feel a bit uneasy about this," McKay told him. "Not that I don't think it won't work, but... well, I'm not exactly used to this sort of fight."

"Sneaking around and ambushing asshats when they least expect it?" Zek asked, hoping for clarification.

"Sitting in a steel tub hoping the enemy doesn't pick you up on sensors before you can make your move," she explained. "I'm a Drop Trooper, not a Submarine hand."

"Don't worry, Captain," Retz assured. "Deception is in a kig-yar pirate's blood and this whole plan hinges on that alone. Zon Gak might have more guns, but he's made a crucial mistake already. He assumes we're the only ship out here worth hunting for."

Retz activated the secure comm-line on his console.

"Varvok, you in position?" He asked.

" _Floating behind one of the large bits of rock out here,"_ the batarian responded. _"You were right about their search pattern, one's coming right by us."_

"Good, you'll need to detonate beneath them along the starboard," Retz informed him. "That should convince them of where we want them to turn towards. Remember, you need to get out of there fast. It's going to become one hell of a hot spot once everything gets lit up."

" _Will do, over and out."_

When Varvok hung up, Retz turned to see Mckay looking rather curious at him.

"You're really into this little scheme, aren't you?" She asked.

"Every now and then Zek comes up with a plan I truly love," he explained. "I like to think this little idea is born of my influence more than anything."

"Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head," Zek informed him. "After that shit with Snarlbeak I need to show we're smarter than any of his fucking lackeys and by extension, him. This is about proving what a real pirate can do."

"If it means you using your deviousness more, I honestly can't complain either way," Retz assured, turning to the kig-yar in command sections of the bridge. "Ready Plasma Torpedoes for launch, but do not spin up power until my say so. Any fluctuation or energy spike could give us away, even with the cloak."

The pirates all just nodded and began setting to work. Meanwhile, Retz and Zek watched the progress of Varvok's team on the holomap. They navigated through debris, carefully moving through the bits of moons that never were or pulverized comet chunks. They went slow, to disguise their true identity, but if this worked the end result would be worth the wait.

"That Prowler of yours has some slick maneuverability," Zek commented to McKay.

"Right now I'm just hoping its cloak can hold out against their sensors," she stated. "The good news its one of the smaller ones, so if we're lucky it will just look like a stray asteroid or something."

"That's the idea," Zek stated, recalling the plan. "Don't be so nervous, Captain. This is going to work."

"I'll probably be less nervous if we weren't totally relying on a bunch of improvised explosives," McKay added. "Everything else I have relative confidence in."

Zek had to admit to that part, he sorted wished the Prowler had some of its own mines or something in its hold. McKay had explained they were used for that purpose, unfortunately the damn thing was bone dry of munitions. The damn Innies had probably picked it clean for their own purposes or stole it before it could be rearmed. They'd make do though, if their bombs were bad enough to give them pause on the ONI Station, they'd be good enough to trick a pirate ship. Or, at the very least, trick Zon Gak.

Soon enough Varok was in position and contacted them once more.

" _Beneath the target,"_ he said. _"Releasing first cluster... now."_

Zek could see in his mind's eyes, the various assortment of IEDs from their now dead Insurrectionist pals floating free into space. He imagined them bumping into the belly of the enemy ship, or floating off along the side. As Varvok peeled away from detonation zone, Retz gave him to go ahead to detonate. Seconds later and explosion went off along the side of the opposing ship. While it was nowhere near a fatal hit, the fact they could see the eruption even from their position was a good sign. They couldn't see the damage they caused, but it didn't really matter. As soon as the enemy ship began to turn into the explosion's radius, Zek knew it had worked.

"They're buying it! They think we're over there some place and are turning to attack," he declared. "Just like we planned!"

The enemy vessel soon revealed its backside to them, completely unaware that the _Fallen Serpent_ was in fact behind them. Which gave them their opening. With the engines exposed to their weapons, Zek had the _Serpent_ climb into ample targeting position.

"All forward Plasma Torpedo batteries, target the engine core, full spread," Zek ordered. "As soon as they're away, re-engage the cloak and pour everything we have into thrusters. We need to be gone from this position fast."

The crew did as ordered and Plasma Torpedoes locked onto the enemy ship. Firing them would force the _Serpent_ to decloak, but it wouldn't matter if they acted quickly. Once they were ready, Zek gave the order to fire. The Corvette's cloak dropped and several burning streaks of plasma launched forth from their batteries. They streamed towards their target, but those aboard the _Serpent_ could not wait to see them hit their mark. They recycled the cloak and quickly turned hard to port as they boosted the engines way from their current position.

Zek turned on one of the exterior cameras to keep their sights on the opposing ship. The vessel tried to turn away, but it was already too late. The Torpedoes slammed into the backside the enemy cruiser, utterly decimating its engines. As soon as the blast cleared, they could see the first of Zon Gak's ships now listing hard to the right, completely disabled.

"They're in no position to re-engage," Retz reported. "One down."

There was little time to celebrate their first victory, however. A barrage of plasma torpedoes soon erupted along the position they had been in moments before. While they were far enough away to avoid the shots, the blasts did destroy several larger asteroids and bits of debris. These pieces soon smashed against the _Serpent_ , causing it to rock and pivot about.

"Damage?" Zek demanded.

"Minimal," Retz answered. "Cloak is still holding. Minor damage to shields, we're recharging."

Good, nothing serious enough to mess up the plan. They'd have to be quicker next time though, Zon certainly would be. Speaking of, him and his remaining ship were already moving on their previous position, adjusting their search pattern with the hope of encircling them. They didn't seem to realize that the Prowler was still out there, but they had to be sure.

"Four-eyes, status?" Zek requested.

" _Shadowing the second target now,"_ he replied. _"They don't seem to know we're here."_

"They might think we laid some kind of mine out for them or something," McKay suggested. "They may not know the Prowler is out there, but it will be harder to convince them to turn now."

"Not if we still make it look like we shot at them," Retz suggested. "They know we went for the engines to disable the first ship. If we attack their rear, they'll think we got behind them and turn defensively."

"Alright, but we should keep an eye on that flagship," McKay warned. "It's keeping in close formation to other cruiser. Zon Gak might not have your cunning, but he's not a complete idiot either. He has to know something is up."

Maybe, but if they pulled this off he'd figure out what that was a bit too late to do anything about it.

"Varvok, head to the stern of the second ship following Zon," Retz ordered. "Drop the second payload near the starboard side on top of them."

Varvok acknowledged and they could see his signal moving towards the designated target. At the moment, it was just a waiting game. Everything on low power as they coasted through the black, trying to get into a decent enough firing position for when Varvok made his move. That's what this all was really, a complicated series of maneuvers, setting the enemy up for the fall. All Zek could do was guess how Zon would react, or at least how his men would. Hopefully, he guessed right.

The Prowler was soon over the target, just coasting behind. For this to work, they'd have to believe a plasma Torpedo struck their backside somehow. Zek had loaded some plasma grenades and fuel rod canisters into the mix of explosives they had cobbled together. The question now was it enough to convince the shipmaster of that cruiser that they had snuck behind them.

"Do it, Varvok," Retz ordered. "Do it now!"

The Prowler released its payload and beat a hasty retreat. Moments later a detonation erupted along the stern of the cruiser, close to the bridge. Almost at once, the Cruiser turned into a hard maneuver, positioning itself as a bulwark for Zon Gak, to protect the flagship from incoming Plasma Torpedoes. With their underbelly exposed, Zek saw his chance.

"Fire! Fire now!" He ordered

The cloak dropped and the _Serpent_ unleashed everything they had in their batteries. The corvette then moved to avoid the incoming retaliation, only to see Zon Gak's flagship maneuver into firing range quicker than before. McKay had been right, the Jackal was smarter than he appeared. Even as their cloak began to recycle, Zon was launching a barrage of plasma torpedoes towards their position.

"Evasive! Evasive!" Zek ordered frantically. "Dive down! Dive down!"

The _Serpent_ dove into the debris field below. Some of the Torpedoes slammed into the rocks while others missed. But the resulting explosions were enough to severely rock the vessel and plenty were close enough that alarms began to go off.

"Report!" Zek ordered, even as the klaxon kept ringing.

"Shield damage is severe, recycling now," Retz reported. "Hull significantly hit, cloak holding. Fire alarm in one of the maintenance corridors, sending teams to put it out."

"What about the enemy ship?" Zek asked.

Retz pulled up a feed, showing said cruiser was now floating aimlessly in space.

"Appears disabled, sir," Retz answered. "But, I think Zon Gak is zeroing in."

"He was waiting for us to pull the trick again," McKay observed. "He let his other ship take a hit just to get a shot at hitting us when we dropped the cloak."

Which meant he would not fall for the trick itself. Not again. And that seemed to be confirmed when Zek saw a number of space flight capable Banshees begin to circle Zon Gak's ship, launching from the hangars in squads of two.

"Four-Eyes, get back here," Zek ordered over the comm. "We can't risk you getting caught by Zon's people."

" _Copy that, moving to you,"_ Varvok replied.

This was not good, they still had the flagship to deal with and Zon had caught on quicker than he hoped. Lucky for Zek, Retz had come up with an idea, just in case this had gone south somehow. His contribution to the deception, as it were.

"We're in position right?" Zek asked.

"Nearly," Retz assured. "Just keep cloaked for a moment longer, we'll be there soon. Captain McKay, be prepared to transmit."

"Sure, but you better be quick about it," she told him. "Zon's encroaching on us pretty fast."

The _Fallen Serpent_ kept ahead of Zon's ship best they could, still maintaining low power on everything but the cloak. The Battlecruiser bashed its way through the debris with little regard as it scanned the area. They just needed a few more moments, just a little longer and they could resolve this. That was when Zon's ship seemed to bank directly into their path.

"Ah crap," Zek grimaced. "Move!"

Several smaller beams of plasma shot out of Zon's flagship, tracing the area around the _Serpent_. He did apparently have something that could detect cloaked ships, but not very accurate as the wide berth the shots were giving them was proof enough of. Eventually though, one struck their port side, cutting deep into their hull's armor.

"Full power to engines! Run! Just run!"

Zek's order was followed and the _Serpent_ sped away from the attack zone. It stopped a couple hundred yards away.

"We got hit pretty hard, but we're still alive," Retz assured. "Oh, and Varvok's on approach to our hangar. We're ready to go."

"Get him inside," Zek ordered. "Then shut off all power and be ready to decloak. Make this convincing."

"Remember who you're talking to," Retz chuckled.

The Prowler entered the hangar shortly after, landing on the deck carefully. Once it did, Zek had the Corvette drift a little, but had the engines shutdown. This had to work, they had no other plays. Retz was good enough at this sort of thing that Zek trusted this little plan B. The real question was if they could get Zon Gak close enough.

"Drop the cloak," Retz finally ordered. "Be ready."

The cloak dropped and Zon Gak's ship began to move in on their position. So far, he hadn't fired again. He must've believed they were disabled. A fact confirmed once communications picked up Zon's transmission.

" _Fallen Serpent, you are disabled and helpless,_ " he stated. _"Prepare to be boarded. Lay down your arms and you may yet live and serve under Snarlbeak's banner."_

Zek ignored the threat and looked to Retz.

"Position?" He asked.

"Almost there," Retz assured. "Just couple more meters and it will be optimal."

The Battlecruiser began to edge closer, its weapons trained on the Corvette. Zon Gak wasn't taking any chances it seemed. He was moving into range, close enough that no matter what Zek did the next shot Zon Gak fired would hit. However, Zek intended to make sure he didn't got that far. He contacted Zon directly as the final piece of the plan fell into place.

"Zon, hate to tell you this, but you ain't getting aboard my ship," he declared. "You're not welcome here."

" _You are in no position to stop me,"_ Zon informed him. _"You've lost, Zek. I have proven to be your superior."_

"No, all you've done is just walk into a trap like a fucking idiot," Zek stated. "McKay! Now!"

McKay inputed the codes onto her omni-tool and transmitted them back to the ONI Spy Station. The very spy station that was currently directly beneath Zon Gak's flagship. The spy station with the self-destruct mechanism that McKay had just reactivated. Without any warning and no understanding of what had just happened, Zon's flagship was suddenly engulfed in a massive explosion as the station blew itself apart, like a massive mine right under the enemy battlecruiser. Zon's ship lurched backward in space, fires burning across its belly. Zek had no time to admire the view.

"Full power to engines, get us the fuck out of here!" He ordered.

The _Fallen Serpent_ sprung back to life and sped away from the still exploding battlecruiser. Reactivating is cloak the second it escaped the debris field of the gas giant's ring. The whole bridge erupted in cheers and glorious song. Another perfectly engineered escape, with a few hiccups. Zek could only breathe a sigh of relief.

"I knew he'd move in for the kill," Retz chuckled. "From the start it was obvious. Too much sangheili in that one."

"I'm just happy we pulled this off," McKay stated. "I'm thinking we should link backup with the carrier now."

Nothing would've made Zek happier, but something told him today wasn't finished. No, not until they had gotten what they actually came here for. After what he learned, he wasn't about to take the chance of losing it. Too much was at stake now.

"We will," he promised the ODST leader. "But first, we got another mission to complete."

"Another mission?" McKay asked.

"Keep the cloak up," Zek ordered. "Take us close to Reach and, if you can, see if you can raise Shepard somehow. If he ain't off that mudball already, then he's probably in some trouble."

And who better to play calvary than a space pirate, he thought.

* * *

The Covenant were utterly swarming the area, forcing Shepard's team into cover with their constant barrage of fire. With turtling up their only option, Shepard had Zaeed use his disruptor rounds to damage the shields of the enemy Elites. When they got close enough, he released a biotic shockwave that knocked the enemies away while he filled them full of holes from his pistol. It was an effective strategy for sure, but they were running low on thermal clips fast. Worse yet, Grunt was getting restless with the defensive game, blasting his Claymore in anger at anything that dared to get close.

"Let me get out there," he demanded. "I'll tear them apart."

"We have to hold here," Shepard reminded him. "That's the mission!"

Their holding position was part of a raised platform, the only path to it a set of stairs from ground. Behind them was a blown open part of the wall in the side of Castle Base. This revealed a staircase, the emergency access to the landing pad to be exact. However, while the approach to them was fairly narrow, they were still outside and the Elites leading the charge had seemingly grown tired of trying to bludgeon their way through with a direct assault.

One of the Elites managed to climb onto the side of the platform somehow and was forcing his way up in order to get on their flank. Grunt saw this out of the corner of his eye, the Covenant Officer pulling himself up and over, his gun pointed in a ready to fire position. Grunt managed to fire at him, throwing of the Elite's aim but the krogan was still forced to take cover as his enemy fired back in return. The Elites finally clambered up onto the platform proper, ready to take the krogan on directly with a defiant cry. Grunt would answer his challenge directly.

Grunt charged the Elite, activating fortification as he did. The extra armor absorbed some of the plasma shots, enough for Grunt to basically slam into his enemy like a freight train. Even so, the Elite fought back, punching and kicking at the giant reptile in an attempt to strike him down. Grunt simply grabbed him by the back of the head and then slammed his adolescent skull plate into the Elite's face. Dazed and confused, the Elite was unable to prevent Grunt from lifting him up over his head. He bellowed in rage before tossing the Covie into one of fellow Elites. Both aliens tumbled over the railing of the platform, falling back to ground level.

"Nice one, Grunt," Shepard called out. "Now keep your head down, we're still not out of this."

Another Elite soon charged up the steps, rolling and dodging away from Zaeed and Shepard's shots. As he popped back up, plasma sword in hand and prepared to strike he was suddenly stopped dead. A bullet pierced his skull and he dropped at Shepard's feet in a heap. Turning to where the shot had come from, he saw Jun with a smoking rifle. He was standing across from their position on the walkway, reloading another magazine into his weapon.

"That was one seriously fatal case of tunnel vision," he commented.

He took up a defensive position near the edge of the platform, as his fellow Spartans charged into the fray to join Shepard's team. If the Covenant were at all put off by this development, they didn't show it. Even the gas-sucking grunts continued the assault as fresh troops moved in to replace those who had fallen.

Chief moved to Shepard's position, firing his assault rifle into grunts pressing on their position. Shepard finished them off with a shockwave that sent them hurtling back down the steps they had scrambled up. Moving into cover, Chief reloaded as the Commander continued to fire down at the approaching hostiles.

"Perfect timing as always, Chief," Shepard complimented.

"He's made a habit of that," Cortana chimed in.

"What's our situation?" Chief asked, not missing a beat as he moved back up into the line of fire.

"Multiple squads moving through the breach in the base wall and encroaching on our position," Shepard explained. "At first it was just a trickle, now everyone knows we're here it seems."

Shepard wasn't exaggerating, from the looks of things the entire assault force had be rerouted to this position. They couldn't last much longer fighting all these enemy units. They had to get out of here and soon. He contacted Kelly.

"Kelly, tell me you and Kat are almost done up there," he said.

" _Another minute, we're in the process of reconnecting the critical power sequences,"_ she explained.

"Then you better make it the fastest minute you can," Chief ordered.

Chief opened fire on a group of Jackals pressing on their position, they kept their shields up as his bullets battered their defensive line. Shepard pointed his pistol's crosshairs at the notch in the shields the Jackals used to fire their weapons at the enemy. With two shots a piece; he managed his the avian aliens' hands, forcing them to drop their shields. It gave Chief the chance he needed to properly take them both down with a quick burst from his assault rifle.

Yet another Elite moved in now, this time careful to avoid heading in a straight line. He ducked and dodged as he advanced, firing at Chief and Shepard's position as he rushed towards the stairs. Luckily, Zaeed caught him in his crosshairs and unloaded several disruptor rounds on him. When the alien's shields dropped, Shepard saw his chance.

"Chief, cover my charge," he ordered. "Grunt, move up!"

"Finally!" The krogan laughed heartily.

Shepard let his biotics surge him forward in blue burst of light. His biotic charge slammed into the Elite, sending him flying backward. Chief rushed to join the Commander, while he fired off his shotgun at anything that came within striking distance. Chief soon joined the fray, with Grunt not but a few steps behind.

With a constant stream of fire, Chief's rifle raked several Covenant trying to push up through the hole in Castle Base's outer wall. Shepard strafed the area with his shotgun while simultaneously sending out Shockwave attacks at approaching foes. One Elite popped up suddenly, firing his plasma rifle at the Commander. Shepard used his pull attack on a nearby grunt in response, pulling the methane-breathing alien towards him and holding him there. The little covie acted as a shield against the incoming plasma bolts before Shepard sent him hurtling back right into the grunt's commanding officer. The Elite tumbled backwards as his minion collided with his head. Before he could even get back up, Chief filled him full of lead.

Shepard kept pressing, biotically charging once more into another Elite. A shotgun blast to the gut ended the Covie officer before a shockwave sent what was left of his squad scattering. Chief rushed in to mop up what was left as the Covenant lines broke and retreated suddenly back through the hole in the outer wall and across the mountain plain.

"That seemed too easy," Cortana cautioned.

"Maybe, but at least we got a reprieve," Shepard told the AI.

That's when Chief saw the trees in the forest moving suddenly. Soon, a pair of Wraiths emerged from the line of foliage, their main weapons charging up.

"They're in zeroing on us! Fall back!" Cortana warned.

Shepard and Chief ran back to the holding position as plasma barrages began to strike the general area. As the wraiths kept firing, Cortana was quick to warn the them of other developments.

"Covenant comm chatter just lit up across the board," she told them. "Banshees, at least three squadrons, heading to our position. They're going to bombard what's left of Castle Base to rubble!"

"What about the crystal?" Shepard asked, as they reached the steps. "They'll risk destroying it!"

"At this point they're hoping to recover it from the remains," Cortana informed them.

When they got back to the others at the choke point, the plasma barrage was already intensifying.

"If anyone has a spare rocket launcher on them, now would be a good time to share," Jun stated. "My rifle skills aren't exactly much use against heavy armor."

"Kelly, tell me that cloak is ready to go," Chief frantically asked over the radio.

" _We're powering it up now,"_ she reported in. _"Everything looks nominal, so it should work."_

"Work or not, we're moving to you," he declared. "We're out of time."

Shepard concurred with that assessment.

"Back to the Phantom people," he said. "We're leaving!"

* * *

Rushing back up the steps to the landing pad, the teams burst through the door making a beeline for the Phantom. Everyone else, Halsey, Kat, Kelly, Whitcomb, Taq and the surviving Marines, were already aboard. The dropship was already powering up, getting ready to leave.

"Everyone in!" Shepard ordered, ushering them on, stopping just short of jumping aboard himself. "Go! Go!"

As the teams rushed to get inside the Phantom, however, something came barreling out of the sun. The distinctive screeching cry of the engine revealed it before anyone could properly see the silhouette.

"Banshee!" Linda warned.

The Covenant Aircraft strafed the deck of the airpad, it's plasma bolts cutting into the group. While most were able to avoid getting hit, Anton was just a little too slow and took a hit to the leg and arm. He went down, alive but in severe pain. Linda rushed to pull him up, Fred helping to support him as they limped him the rest of the way towards the Phantom. The Banshee was not done with them though.

It circled back for another run, aiming its heavy guns at the airpad. It had missed the Phantom, this time. Jun wasn't about to let it get another chance to get a proper hit in. He took aim as the aircraft closed in on the pad once more. He unloaded his sniper rounds into the Banshee, one hit damaging the wing another shot hitting the cockpit before a third round hit its target, cutting through to kill the pilot. The Banshee listed to the right and fell from the sky. Its descent ending when it collided nose first into the ground, a massive explosion following.

"As fun as that was, can we not stick around for the main event?" Jun asked.

After the others helped Anton into the Phantom, Shepard and Chief stepped onto the dropship themselves. Kat and Kelly didn't even need Chief's orders to begin lifting off, they already underway the second Chief's feet had left the ground. Before they could get into the air though, Chief noticed Cortana was connecting remotely to something.

"What are you doing?" He asked the AI.

"Making sure they're busy with a few things," she explained. "Kelly, Kat, can you activate the cloak?"

"Already on it," Kat said. "Disappearing... now!"

As the Phantom lifted off the cloak activated, hiding the Phantom from view. It wasn't pretty, there was a distinct shimmer effect, but not something that was easily seeable. At the same time though, Chief noticed another Phantom lifting off not too far away from them. Perhaps, just outside Castle Base's walls. It was not on an intercept course though, it was headed into the clouds. Chief soon realized it was the Phantom they had flown down in.

"Remote piloting subroutine," Cortana explained. "I had it jump closer and closer to our position in increments over time. Should be intercepting enemy air patrols... now!"

There were a few explosions in the clouds, as well as the sounds of plasma fire. Before long, burning debris and the main body of the other Phantom itself, plummeted from the sky. It crashed down on an opposing mountain peak about mile off.

"They'll be so busy trying to get there to check the wreckage they won't be as diligent in searching the rest of the skies," Cortana stated. "Making our escape just a bit easier."

Chief nodded, a good plan. Anything that increased their odds was fine by him. He now turned to his other more immediate problem. Anton was on the floor, Shepard seeing to him with a helpful dose of medi-gel. Kneeling down, he took in his fellow Spartan's injuries.

"You alright?" He asked.

"I'm okay, sir," Anton said through a pained grunt. "Might not be able to stand, but I'm still breathing, right?"

"We'll have medics check you out when we get back to the carrier," Chief assured. "Don't worry, we're home free now."

As they exited the atmosphere, Halsey and Whitcomb approached Chief and Shepard directly.

"We honestly thought we were done for down there," the Admiral stated. "Never been more happy to be proven wrong."

"Indeed, and it pleases me to see you and the Commander have formed a fairly cohesive dynamic," Halsey added. "As I suspected you would. The fact it has aided in my survival is merely a bonus."

"Just glad I could get you out, ma'am," Chief assured. "You and the others."

Taq was rather quick to interrupt things once more, as she kept eyeing the crystal in Halsey's hands. Her scanner constantly moving over it, attempting to get a read on it. It was either that, or she was holding the Amplifier relic up to it.

"Couldn't you... restrain yourself somewhat until we have a proper lab?" Halsey requested.

"Hey, you lucking into finding this doesn't give you permission to tell me when to start analysis," Taq declared. "This thing is a part of kig-yar history as much as Forerunner. So lab or no lab, I'm taking readings and getting a head start on this."

Halsey looked curiously at Taq before returning her gaze to Shepard.

"You never really explained what was so important about this Crystal," she told them.

"It's a very long, incredibly insane story," Shepard said, his memory of the ridiculous song causing his tone to lapse into one of exasperation. "Lets just say for now, it leads to a possible weapon. One powerful enough that it could turn the tide of war. If it's real, of course."

Before anyone could elaborate further, a transmission started coming over their secure channel. Cortana was quick to clean it up and tune the others in.

" _Fallen Serpent to ground team, are you receiving? Fallen Serpent to Commander Shepard, are you receiving?"_

It was Retz's voice and he seemed a bit frantic in his requests. Shepard quickly replied.

"Commander Shepard to the _Serpent_ ," he replied. "We read you. Mission is a success, repeat, success. We have the relic and need pick up. Where is the _Ascendant Justice_?"

" _No idea, Commander, they must be maintaining some kind of radio silence,"_ Retz replied. _"The Covenant are really stirred up now. Whatever you pulled down planetside is making every ship in the fleet circling the rock go insane. We need to get you to the rendezvous and out of here, fast."_

"Decloak and head to these coordinates," Shepard ordered, typing on his omni-tool. "If what you're seeing is accurate, they're looking for us specifically. We're in a cloaked Phantom. Don't ask, we rigged something up. We'll explain in the debriefing with Holland once we get back to the carrier."

Moments later, the _Fallen Serpent_ decloaked not too far away from them. They could see it through the various cameras the dropship had installed on its exterior, all viewable on holographic screens. Shepard eased the trepidation of the newcomers quickly before panic set in.

"It's alright, they're the deserters we talked about before," he explained. "They're here to pick us up and-"

That was when several plasma torpedoes nearly hit the Pirate Corvette, forcing it to take evasive action. Appearing out of the black came another ship, a Battlecruiser, badly damaged but still capable of fighting it seemed.

"Covenant, they found us," Whitcomb stated angrily.

"No, I don't think so," Cortana stated. "Patching us into a communication uplink. The shipmaster of that cruiser is... not happy. It appears, Zek and Retz had a little bit of an adventure of their own today."

The transmission came through their radios soon enough.

" _I will not be humiliated by some hatchet job jury rigged Corvette and it's drunk of a captain! Zon Gak will have his prize and your head, Shipmaster Zek!"_

" _Come and take it, fuckwit! I'm gonna blow your ass so wide open, Snarlbeak is gonna need to scour the darkest corners of the void just to find even a tenth of your ass to beatdown for fucking this one up for him!"_

Halsey eyed Shepard somewhat incredulously.

"What a very colorful friend you've made, Commander," she noted.

"I'm working on the friend part, honestly," Shepard informed her.

However, Zek would not need to worry about his properly fulfilling his threat. As the Battlecruiser moved in to take another shot, a streaming beam of blue light collided with the enemy vessel's side. It was followed up by a massive explosion along its right weapons battery, causing it to dip low as fires began to rage aboard the ship.

Shepard didn't need to guess what the first shot was, Joker's voice over the radio more or less confirmed it.

" _Commander! You out there? We're reading your transponder signal but EDI can't find your Phantom."_

Shepard asked Kat to lower the cloak and begin taking them in to dock with the _Serpent_. It wouldn't be long before this Zon Gak recovered his nerve and came back to keep fighting. As the cloak dropped, Shepard contacted Joker directly.

"We're here, Joker," he assured. "Nice assist there with the Thanix. But what was that other explosion?"

" _Oh that's, uh, that's something, sir,"_ Joker laughed somewhat. _"It was the Justice! Well, sorta. You wouldn't believe what we found poking around the system."_

It wasn't long before the cameras picked up the Normandy, streaming into view alongside the _Serpent_. Soon enough though a bigger ship emerged, the _Ascendant Justice_ , but it had an addition. Some kind of UNSC ship attached to the front of the carrier itself.

"A Paris-Class Heavy Frigate," Cortana observed. "I should've known. That hit did look like it came from a MAC Gun. But, what's it doing attached to the Carrier?"

It was then the _Justice_ contacted them.

" _Commander, Chief,"_ Colonel Holland's voice said with a firm, gruff tone. _" Sorry for slipping out of contact back there. We had to fall back when Covenant patrols got too nosy for their own good. It's safe to say they know this ship isn't theirs anymore. The good news, we found this abandoned frigate, the_ Gettysburg _. Its weapons and reactor are still online and with the help of the Engineers, we managed to connect its systems with that of the Justice's."_

"A hybrid alien-human vessel," Halsey commented. "How unexpected, and a bit more creative than usual actually."

"The extra firepower is appreciated in any case, Colonel," Shepard said glowingly.

" _Haverson's idea actually, can't take all the credit for it,"_ Holland explained. _"We've been stealing so many ships recently, we figured why not one more? Especially when it's one of ours for once."_

"Careful, sir," Shepard laughed. "You might be picking up some habits from our pirate friends."

" _Maybe, but if it gets us a MAC just this once I'm fine with it,"_ Holland claimed. _"Don't tell Zek that of course. Get aboard the Serpent and prepare for Slipspace jump. We are getting the hell out of here."_

"No time like the present," Cortana concurred. "Covenant Battlenet is lighting up. They know we're here and are moving to engage."

Shepard just nodded. Once the Phantom was aboard the pirate Corvette and secured properly, Shepard radioed Zek directly.

"Get ready to jump, Zek," he stated. "We need to be gone from here fast!"

" _As if I want to stay at this point!"_ Zek called out. _"Retz! Spin up the drive and jump with the Ascendant Justice! I've had more than enough of my fill of this system for two lifetimes!"_

Shepard looked back at the Master Chief, assisting Anton along with his fellow Spartans. The Commander imagined that for just this once, the Chief shared in the Pirate's sentiments.

* * *

The Slipspace jump went off without hitch, getting them out of the system before more enemy pirates or the Covenant themselves could start another firefight. From there it was a series of reunions, debriefings and causes for celebrations among various groups.

Holland and Whitcomb met as soon as possible, speaking in the Colonel's quarters for a period of time. In the end, the Admiral decided that he'd let Holland maintain command. He had a greater rapport with the men aboard than he did. Whitcomb, however, would of course be included in all decision making within the leadership of the fleet. It was only right of course and he'd maintain everything else that came with the rank. It was also decided the ODSTs would report to him from now on. He was Navy after all. Of course, direct tactical command would still reside with Captain McKay, now officially promoted as soon as the admiral had officiated her rank designation. Otherwise, the general positions of power had not changed too drastically.

Tali was quick to find Halsey as soon as he good doctor arrived on the _Normandy_. There was a ton to talk about, most of it in private. What Shepard did overhear were the obvious expressions of relief that the other was alive. Tali couldn't help but share a ton of her notes on the Forerunners and their technology that she uncovered. However, it soon became apparent that they had other business to attend to. Specifically when Cortana was transfered to Tali's omni-tool. The AI appeared to still be cross with her creator and Shepard imagined why. They were probably still talking, Wade made a mental note to ask Tali how things went later. He knew what it was about though and, to be honest, he didn't exactly blame Cortana if she was upset with Halsey's deceptions or how she had foisted it on Tali. After all, it had led to a pretty terrible situation, even if it was one that had been unforeseeable.

At the moment, Shepard was with the Master Chief in the operations center of the _Gettysburg_ , their newly acquired addition to the fleet. Haverson was there, so were McKay, Varvok, Taq, Retz, and Zek. Chief had managed to pull himself away from his team, if only for a bit. Shepard suspected he wanted to be with them more, but he still had a duty to perform. At the very least he didn't have to worry about one member of his team for the moment. Chakwas was currently looking over Anton with Mordin's assistance. He seemed to be doing okay from what Shepard had heard.

Significantly less okay were the results of the joint ODST and Pirate mission. It had been a success, they now had a ton of relevant data on the operations of the Covenant fleet. They were still parsing through it, but the intel would no doubt be invaluable in due time. However, other revelations had come to light over the course of the mission. Besides the Insurrectionist prisoners that had managed to infiltrate the spy station, there was also the matter of Snarlbeak. According to what he had told Zek, their search for these relics had taken a bit of a turn.

"So all this time, this Snarlbeak has been trying to get his hands on these relics so he can use them as leverage to join the Covenant in a position of power," Haverson summarized. "That's his end goal."

"And to take every major Pirate clan, including the Syndicate entire, with him," Retz added with a sense of finality. "All so he can get revenge for his sister and achieve her dream posthumously."

Haverson shook his head with a grunt, pacing a bit around the room.

"Would this work?" He asked. "Would the Syndicate really follow him?"

"If it's a choice between follow him or die, the Queens will pick the former," Retz stated flatly. "There's no profit to be made in attacking a bird with a powerful nigh unstoppable weapon. The good news is, he needs all the relics to find it in the first place and we have two of four."

"And as long as we have them, he'll be after us," Haverson added. "As long as the other two are out there, he'll be gunning for them. And if he gets them, depending on what they can do, he could use them against us in order to get the relics we have in our possession."

"That's the long and short of it, yes," Retz agreed.

"We need to study the crystal we obtained in any case," Taq interjected. "It runs both ways, we can use these relics to defend ourselves from Snarlbeak's forces while we collected the remaining two. The Amplifier alone could boost several of the defensive capabilities of any of the vessels in this fleet for one. If this Crystal is just as powerful..."

Haverson did seem to agree, but his concern had not abated in the slightest.

"The fact is, either way, Snarlbeak will be on us from now on," he declared. "Until the other relics are collected at the very least. We cannot allow him to hand over any of them to the Covenant, let alone a massive fleet of ships. The Covenant have enough of those already."

"He wouldn't just be getting ships," Varvok warned. "He'd have a force of several unconventional fighters on his side. Warriors without pity, mercy or any sense of honor. Trained specifically for tasks like infiltration, espionage, assassination and sabotage. If we know anything about the Syndicate, it's that we know their potential to cause trouble for anyone they set their sights on. The Covenant would gain a proper guerilla force, one that would make our lives extremely difficult."

"Varvok is correct," Retz confirmed. "Ships are one thing, but the resources and strategies of the Syndicate themselves would give the Covenant something they've been lacking for centuries. Ingenuity. The Syndicate has that in spades, so does Snarlbeak. You could be facing a different kind of war, one where the Covenant employ overwhelming force as well as cunning subterfuge."

That was the last thing they needed. As far as Shepard understood, the greatest weakness of the Covenant was their inability to adapt. They maintained the same strategies, the same methods, the same weapons. Snarlbeak and the Syndicate didn't play by those rules. Positioned as a proper military fighting force, and not just a band of roaming criminals, they'd probably see the Covenant begin to think outside the box more often. A dangerous precedent to be sure.

Not to mention, if the Astral Cutlass was real and could do all it said it could, then humanity had an even worse problem. A weapon that could destroy fleets, get around defenses and empower the enemy to such a scale would be devastating to humanity at this point. With Earth now the only major stronghold left, there wouldn't be much to stop the Covenant from decimating the already weakened UNSC.

"Then I guess we're staying on this treasure hunt," Haverson relented. "Can Snarlbeak track us to the next relic? Does he know we even have the crystal?"

"He'll put two and two together, eventually," Zek said, finally speaking up. "He's not stupid. He'll figure out that we went directly to Reach after we found the wreck. When he realizes that, he'll realize that there had to be more to that than just hiding out. If he hasn't already. He said he had spies working within the Covenant and they know we got the Crystal. It will filter back to him eventually."

"And if he tracked us once, he'll do it again somehow," Varvok cautioned. "Any enemy this determined, this obsessed with a singular goal, is not going to let any inconvenience hamper him for long. I saw it when he was talking to Zek over the comm. The very thought of his sister's death enrages him. He may have killed the one who did it, but that's not enough. He wants to give her in death what she never had in life. He'll stop at nothing to honor her memory, no matter the cost."

"Don't count out the Syndicate either," Retz warned. "They won't go down without a fight. If they can stop Snarlbeak from getting the Cutlass, they will take every measure to insure that outcome. Even if it means potentially killing us in the crossfire."

Haverson took the grim admission to heart, accepting the reality they now found themselves in. A vengeful pirate on one end, a triple alliance of Jackal clans with a similar goal on the other, and the Covenant looking to reclaim what was stolen from them.

"We got our work cut out for us," he stated. "In that sense, I'm at least happy to know we have a few extra Spartans on hand to help us get out of this mess."

Chief just nodded simply.

"Of course, we'll do whatever it take to keep the relics safe," he assured. "My team is ready."

"No doubt," Haverson agreed. "I'm glad you found them, Chief. I know it was important to you."

Again, Chief merely nodded. As he did, Shepard noticed Zek had once again returned to deep thought, looking scornfully at the holographic imaging table in front of them. Out of as much concern as it was curiosity, he tried to engage the pirate leader.

"Zek, what's wrong?" He asked. "You haven't said much since we started."

"Nothing," Zek assured. "Just my whole damn perception of shit is fucked, is all. My dad died refusing to become a tool of the Covenant. He died trying to be some big stupid hero. The dumb fucker."

"It sounded like he died fighting for what he believed in," Shepard said, trying to console the pirate. "You can't blame him too much for that."

"All my life I thought he was pulling a selfish Unggoy Shit stunt, instead he was just being another kind of idiot," Zek declared angrily. "The idiot with a dumbfuck idea to fight a one man war against someone he knew he was going to get massacred by. He got his men killed because he got all fucking idealistic. And that's not even the worst of it! He died doing what I should've done sooner! He went down fighting while I surrendered to the fuckers and let them control me!"

Shepard was a bit perplexed. Was Zek angry because his father died in a hopeless fight for freedom? Or was he angry that he had defied the Covenant at all?

"You misread what had happened," Shepard tried to explain. "No one told you the real reason your father died. That's not his fault or yours."

"I based my entire fucking decision to accept the Covenant's offer on his stupid death!" Zek declared. "So yeah, it is his fucking fault. I gave up years of my life, my position in the underworld, sold out to the Covies, and why? Because my dumbass dad decided to go play martyr and ended up looking like a moron anyway! The asshole should've minded his own fucking business. If he never got it into his stupid fucking head to play Freedom Fighter, the Covenant would've left him alone and I'd have become a badass buccaneer on my own without his fucking legacy hanging over my head."

"You wouldn't have had the _Serpent_ , you wouldn't have had the prestige of everyone knowing you were related to him," Shepard argued. "Maybe it turned out for the best."

"Keep telling yourself that, Shepard. All I see here is I'm related to a idiot bird who, not only abandoned me and my mom, but died playing hero for a pointless impossible goal," Zek declared firmly and with no hint of doubt. "And the way he died made me think the deal the Covies offered me was better than getting myself killed. He still got his own men massacred for a bullshit reason, the only thing changed is that now I know what really led me into my fucking servitude. It was me being stupid enough to think my dad was just plain selfish, when in reality he was a stupid idealistic stooge who just happened to be selfish. I bled dry for years, languishing under the Covies, because I felt I was sticking it to the old man! That I was the better shipmaster for doing it! And it's all his fucking fault! More so now then ever."

Zek spat on the floor in anger.

"Fuck Dread Feather, stupid pirate and worthless wannabe rebel," he declared. "Fuck him. I'm going to be a better swashbuckler than he ever was. Just you watch, Shepard. Just you watch. My dream ain't poison like his was and I'm going to prove it. First to Snarlbeak and then to every other kig-yar out there."

Zek left the room, still raging while everyone else stood dumbstruck.

"Where did all that come from?" Haverson asked.

"Zhoc got a bit more under his feathers than he cares to admit," Retz informed the room. "All his life, Zek has been trying to outdo the legacy his father left him. I hoped he'd see that he rebelled against the Covenant far better than Dread Feather ever managed, but... I guess that hasn't sunk in yet. For the moment, he just sees the full scope of what he's been forced to inherit."

"Is this going to be a problem?" Haverson asked, not sounding very sympathetic. "The last thing we need right now is a ship captain with a grudge against a dead relative."

"I'll talk to him a bit," Varvok explained. "Get some ichor in him, that usually calms him down. No offense, Shepard, but I'd think he'd prefer a different perspective from yours right now. It seems to only set him off."

"Yeah, seems like it," Shepard agreed, Zek's reaction to his words of comfort all the evidence he needed. "Help him get back to his old self, push through this rough patch. We need him ready for whatever comes next."

Varvok concurred with a nod, not arguing with Shepard's reasoning in the slightest. The batarian and him were on the same page on a subject and they agreed on how to deal with it. A sign things were getting better between them. More than enough reason to remain optimistic, at least as far as Shepard was concerned.

"Well, while Zek is busy with his existential crisis tantrum, we have more important work to do," Taq insisted. "I need to speak with Halsey. Compare notes, theories, study that crystal in fine detail. It should have more information on where the next relic is and perhaps more data on the Astral Cutlass itself."

"Either way, get on it," Haverson told her. "I'll make sure you have clearance. Gentlemen, dismissed."

The group filed out, save for Shepard and Chief who remained. For the first time since this morning, Shepard allowed himself to go limber, relax. It had been a trying day.

"Two down," he stated. "But, I'm guessing that's not the important thing for you right now."

"The mission was a success, Commander," Chief insisted. "In the end, that's what matters."

Shepard just nodded in compliance, but added onto the answer a few seconds later.

"Still, I'm glad you found them," he stated. "Not just because we could use the muscle either. You know that, right?"

"More than aware, sir," Chief assured him, his voice a bit more sombre. "And... thank you again, for being there every step of the way. For helping me find them."

"Anything for my crew, John," Shepard told him, smiling lightly. "You know that by now."

Chief was silent for a moment and then, he himself loosened up, standing more casually alongside the Commander.

"I do," he replied.

Shepard lightly patted him on the shoulder.

"Come on, lets get back to the _Normandy_ ," he said. "Cortana is probably waiting for pick up. Plus, I'm guessing Anton wouldn't mind seeing you too."

Chief followed the Commander out.

"Yes," the Spartan agreed. "I'm sure he would like that."

* * *

AN: Apologies for how long it took to resolve this cliffhanger. Hopefully it was worth the wait. I've been busy writing like crazy to get the next couple of chapters sorted and they are now. It will take time to edit them though and I still have some other projects I'm mulling over or working on. Either way, it's here and we got a whopper of an information dump. This effectively sets up the remainder of the story, our primary villain's motivation is revealed and the stakes fully realized. Hopefully this has given Snarlbeak a bit more depth than just a very violent yet exceedingly cool customer.

As always, there is an update on my blog concerning the behind the scenes of this chapter. And HellFox has a new audio out, this one containing a scene from the last chapter. You can find links to both on my profile page in the usual places. Please remember to review if you can and let me know your thoughts on things. Expect a BBR chapter covering the events of this chapter in due time, I sut have some things to work on before then. As always, your readership and responses are always dear to me and I hope to continue bringing some sci-fi fun next time. Especially next time cause... things are about to get a bit weird. Trust me on that.


	19. Time in a Bottled Ship

**Chapter 18: Time in a Bottled Ship**

 _I'll give you a winter prediction:_

 _It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey,_

 _and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life._

 _-Phil Collins, "Groundhog Day"_

If there was one thing Tali had come to understand about anything, it was that science was a great equalizer. Maybe not **the** equalizer, but to certain people it could bridge gaps that otherwise couldn't be. Here in the cargo hold of the _Normandy_ that fact never more prescient. Where else would a human, a quarian, a kig-yar and an AI all find common ground but in a shared scientific experiment? One that hoped to illuminate many answers on various questions.

Halsey had placed the Forerunner Crystal in the ready position, atop the conduit junction set up in the center of the room. She then looked to Cortana, who had taken up residence in nearby cargo hold computer console. The AI gave a thumbs up in response.

"Readings are relatively normal," she answered plainly. "You know, for an alien artifact we know little about."

"Excellent, let me know if anything changes," Halsey requested.

"I think we've made it clear by now that being prompt with my thoughts on anything won't be a problem anymore, Doctor," Cortana answered, somewhat curtly.

Halsey, to her credit, nodded respectfully. Tali imagined the comment had rolled right off her back, but the quarian wasn't about to let it sit. She walked back over to Cortana, still monitoring the experiment.

"You don't need to keep sniping at her," she told the AI. "She got the message."

"Given what she put you through, unintentional as it may have been, I'm surprised you're not more mad at her," Cortana replied. "Seriously, I have every right to be snippy. Like I told her, I'm not mad, just really disappointed."

Tali had been there for Cortana's talk with Halsey over what they had done to her matrix. Cortana still wasn't mad about a piece of Tali being uploaded into her, she had made that clear. What she was mad about was how Halsey had thought she could deceive her own creation and the pressure it put on the poor quarian. She made that second part the crux of her anger, how swearing her to secrecy nearly got Tali killed. Halsey made no apologies, because of course not she was still the same old Halsey. While she had tried her best to mediate, Tali could sense it wasn't really her place to. This was a purely family affair in every respect, a stern mother and her equally stubborn daughter.

The argument of a sort had ended on peaceful terms, Cortana accepting that Halsey couldn't have known the consequences of what swearing Tali to secrecy would do. The AI wasn't really over the underestimation of her abilities by her creator though. Halsey at the very least acknowledged she had been wrong to think Cortana was unable to handle the mental load of an additional mind within her matrix. Admitting that she should've had more faith in her creations to come to grips with a new status quo so easily. After all, Cortana was based on her mind and her subconscious was more than capable of handling potential trauma in a succinct and efficient manner.

That was probably the closest Halsey would ever get to an apology and Tali was doubtful she'd ever hear her semi-mentor ever admit to being wrong about anything ever again. So the matter was more or less settled, but the animosity still remained and probably would for a while. Again, Tali suspected there was more to the argument then had been acknowledged openly by either side, but it was not her place to pry. Cortana or Halsey would explain things in time. For now, perhaps work would mend some fences, even if they had never been particularly sturdy ones.

"Just keep the experiment in mind," Tali pressed again. "It could potentially help me crack the Slipspace Drive integration problem."

"That depends on how the Crystal reacts," Cortana reminded her. "Just because we know what the Amplifier does, it doesn't guarantee we'll unlock how to use both practically."

"One led us to the other," Tali stated. "They have to be compatible somehow."

The elevator doors opened and both Chief and Shepard stepped out. Taq was with them, holding the Amplifier relic. Even with the toxic presence of the Voice gone, Tali looked at it warily. She trusted everyone when they said the so-called Chronicler entity had been purged. That still didn't take away the memories. Taq thankfully kept a wide berth from Tali while she entered the cargo hold, recognize the quarian's discomfort at the sight of the relic. She silently thanked the kig-yar for her understanding.

"How's it looking so far?" Shepard asked.

"We've gotten the Amplifier hooked up to the conduit device I constructed with the help of the Huragoks," Tali explained, pointing the podium at the center of the room. "Readings seem stable enough, but only because we haven't really done much beyond turning it on."

"I still have a few concerns myself," the Master Chief chimed in. "Are we really going to do this while the _Normandy_ is docked with the _Justice_?"

"There's no danger to the fleet, Chief," Cortana assured. "The conduit device is merely here to properly gauge the energy signatures of both relics when in close proximity to each other. All it is going to do is see how the energies react and then transfer the findings to our computer systems. We're basically just running a diagnostic program to see how these two things are at all compatible."

This statement was overheard by Taq easily, who stopped herself in the middle of connection process.

"They're compatible because they're both Precursor!" She shouted over, standing next to the conduit podium. "It is so obvious at this point. If the Amplifier isn't Forerunner than the Crystal probably ain't either."

"Let's not dip into supposition," Halsey suggested rather plainly. "Just because a map to a mythical sword is contained in one and led you to the other is not evidence that the crystal isn't Forerunner. Just that they share some sort of connection."

"The Cutlass isn't mythical," Taq argued. "Both of these relics share a connection to it regardless. And if one of them isn't of Forerunner origin, then we have to make the rational hypothesis that both relics are the product of another race."

"It is likely, indeed," Halsey agreed. "Perhaps my statement of mythical was even a poor choice of words. Given my own knowledge of Forerunner technology, I suspect something like what you described could have once existed. However, we should be cautious in making final judgments. For all we know, all four relics could be of differing origins from one another. The Astral Cutlass itself a product of inter-species collaboration."

"I admit that is probable, and if one of said relics is potentially of kig-yar origin, it could explain our connection to the legend," Taq confessed. "I am still working from my current hypothesis though, that the main connection these relics have lies in that of the Precursors in someway. The presence of the Chronicler entity is all the evidence I need on that front."

"And I agree with the theory in that sense," Halsey added. "What needs to be established is the true nature of these specific relics before anything can be confirmed."

Shepard and Chief looked on a bit confused by the ongoing discussion. Cortana noticed their bemusement rather quickly, doing her best not to laugh outright. They needed to be brought up to speed.

"They've been comparing notes since Halsey let her take a look at the crystal," the AI explained. "They slip into idle shop talk every other second."

"I'm just wondering if they're arguing or not," Shepard clarified.

"For me it's just weird seeing Halsey getting along with an alien," Chief added. "I thought it would be harder for the two to integrate."

"I think Taq just appreciates talking with someone on her intellectual level," Tali theorized. "Specifically one that doesn't think the Forerunners are Gods and actually supports a lot of her findings. It's kinda fun to watch honestly. They went on for a full hour going over Forerunner Design Seeds and the implications of the technology, not mention some of the weapons that were recovered from the Crawlers."

"Well as long as they're getting along I'm fine with it," Shepard assured everyone. "I just want us to figure what's what with the Crystal. We're not going to risk something else going wrong with these things, not if we can prevent it."

Tali shared that sense of caution more than anyone for obvious reasons. It had not deterred her though, or any of her compatriots. They needed to know more about these relics, what they could do, how they were powered. Of course, each had their own personal reasons. Tali was hoping it could show her a new angle to work on, someway to better integrate their propulsion systems and get the Slipspace and Mass Effect Drives working in tandem. Halsey hoped they'd discover a means of weaponization. Cortana hoped that maybe there was a way she could integrate with the relics and ascertain their full capabilities with greater ease. She still wanted to know the full range of functions the Amplifier could be applied to. Taq was simply looking for more clues regarding the Astral Cutlass. No one could say she didn't maintain her priorities at least.

The only means to uncover any of these answers though, was to crack the secrets behind the relics. Energy scan was one thing, but Halsey and Tali had hit upon the idea that the relics likely shared a connection. It was how they had found each other, the resonance the Amplifier gave off allowed Taq to track the Crystal down. So there had to be a link between the artifacts, more than likely energy based. Conduit Podium was designed to channel the resonant energies both relics were giving off into a singular stream. How they interacted would tell them everything they needed to know about what the relics were capable of and potentially unlock the Crystal for further study through the Amplifier as well.

"Whatever that Crystal can do, we're prepared for it," Tali assured. "Cortana can shut the conduit down at any time and stop the experiment."

"I trust you guys," Shepard assured them. "Go ahead."

Tali nodded to Taq who then hooked up the the crystal to podium. Once it was in place, Cortana began running the experiment as energy soon flowed between the two relics. There was some crackling and the crystal itself began to shift colors, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

"Everything appears stable," Cortana observed. "We still need to let the experiment run its course."

As Cortana said this, the elevator opened once more. Inside was Grunt, not looking at his best. He grumbled as he exited the lift, doors closing behind him. Tali was surprised to see him, as was everyone. Why was he here?

"Grunt, what's going on?" Shepard asked.

"Everything wrong is going on," Grunt complained. "Has been since I woke up to that stupid song on BBR and it won't leave my head. Worse yet some idiot spilled something in the _Normandy's_ crew quarters and I slipped. They ran out of those meaty snacks over on the _Serpent_ that I like. I got hit in the head with a full flagon of ichor. Someone beat my score on the shooting range. And the worst thing, someone took my Garr the Krogan Battlemaster action figure!"

Tali just sighed, placing her hand over her visor.

"Oh Keelah, here we go," she exasperatedly said.

This had not been the first time the last thing had happened. Just the first time Grunt had lost the damn thing during a really bad day it seemed. Shepard was quick to placate the krogan.

"Grunt, I'm sure you just misplaced it," Shepard said comfortingly. "You always misplace it. You have him fight your dinosaur and shark figures and he always ends up somewhere or other."

"Maybe, he's not where I usually leave him," Grunt grumbled.

"You don't have a usual place, Grunt," Tali groaned. "You just forget, okay? We've been over this. No one took him."

"We'll see," Grunt grumbled. "If he's not in here, I know he got taken."

"Just stay out of the experiment range," Shepard requested. "It could be dangerous to get to close."

Grunt looked over at the Conduit curiously.

"What are you even doing?" He asked confused. "You forging those doodads into a weapon already? Bout time."

"We're trying to see how the Amplifier and Crystal interact so we can figure out how the latter works," Tali clarified. "This is a fact finding test, we're not building a gun."

"Yet," Halsey clarified.

Grunt just huffed at it all.

"If neither can shoot or blow things up, I say who cares," he declared. "I'll stay out of your way, but it seems like a waste of time to me."

Tali shook her head, it was so sad to see Grunt ignore such interesting developments in favor of mundane interests. He probably could get a lot out of science if he bothered to apply himself a little. However her thoughts interrupted by someone else coming down the lift. Rushing outside the elevator was Zek, sporting what appeared to be a black eye. He quickly rushed up to the console and eyed Taq.

"Okay, seriously, can we talk now?" He asked.

Taq turned her head away from him.

"You can't ignore me forever, Taq," he stated. "For once I did nothing!"

"I don't care if you can't remember," she declared. "I really don't. You deserved it, now fuck off so I can work."

"Argh! You're impossible! You know that?" Zek cried out. "Im-Pos-Si-Ble!"

Shepard could only shake his head.

"What happened now?" He asked, his own exasperation showing.

"I don't know! She just fucking punched me!" Zek declared. "She won't even tell me what I said to piss her off!"

"You don't remember?" Tali asked confused.

"I may have been drinking or whatever, I don't know!" Zek answered. "She won't tell me!"

"Well can your spat wait until we're done?" Cortana asked. "We're in the middle of an experiment."

Zek finally saw said experiment for himself.

"Oh, light show," he noted. "Is this gonna find me my Cutlass?"

"Your Cutlass?!" Taq shouted in a rage. "It's our Cutlass, you greedy idiot!"

"Well I'm Shipmaster, I'm gonna be using it," Zek reminded her. "So technically it's mine."

"And you wonder why I hit you!" Taq screamed aloud in anger.

Shepard calmed them both down, raising his hands.

"Halsey, Tali and Taq are trying to figure out what the Crystal does without another incident like the one with the Amplifier," Shepard explained. "That's it. Now, Zek, if you don't have anything useful to contribute..."

"Well why is the lumbering overgrown turtle here then?" Zek asked pointing to Grunt. "Is he an egghead too?"

Grunt growled at the little bird pirate before stomping off, deciding he was not worth the effort, thankfully. Although Shepard was not very pleased.

"You know, considering how much trouble that mouth gets you into, maybe you should be more careful with it," he told the Jackal. "Unless you like reaping a ton of consequences on its behalf."

"Oh whatever, give me a break, this is not my best day," Zek stated. "The black eye has been the worst part of this fucking hangover is all. At this point, a do over would be preferable."

A small alarm sounded on the console suddenly, catching Cortana off guard.

"Uh, guys, we might have a fluctuation," she warned. "Conduit energy stream is getting all... screwy for lack of a better term."

Chief moved over to take look. Tali got a glimpse herself as the displays seemed be going off the charts concerning the influx of energy. At the same moment, the sparking energy band between the two relics became more wild and the crystal itself started to flash various colors at a faster rate. Tali didn't wait to see more.

"Shut it down," she ordered. "We can't risk-"

"I'm trying! The system is locked out!" Cortana shouted. "Chief! Pull the plug!"

The Master Chief pulled Cortana from the console. He then moved towards the wire connecting the conduit to the console and its power source. But as he did, both the Amplifier and the Crystals pulled themselves towards each other. The second they touched everything in the cargo bay shook. Suddenly, Tali felt a sense of weightlessness, as she was lifted off the ground. And she wasn't the only one either, as it seemed the gravity in their section of the _Normandy_ had gone offline. Everyone was floating.

"The hell is going on?" Zek demanded to know, holding onto the console for dear life.

"Interesting," Halsey observed as she floated up to the ceiling. "It seems the gravity has been inverted in the immediate area. I suggest caution, it might-"

In that second, gravity reversed again and everyone slammed back down to Earth. Everything in the cargo bay, people and otherwise, crashed down. Even the Hammerhead was pulled from its mooring, smashing onto the floor. Shepard landed near the Master Chief and both made a move for the plug. They started pulling hard on it, trying to disconnect it.

"We got to shut this thing off fast!" Shepard shouted.

Tali watched as Grunt crawled out behind some boxes and Zek stumbled out into the open, trying to get to Taq, who was on the floor in a heap. Grunt stood up, thankfully unhurt, clutching something in his hand.

"Hey! I found Garr the-"

And that was when the crystal exploded in a violent display of color.

* * *

 **Wake me up before you Go Go,**

 **Don't leave me hanging on like a Yo-Yo!**

Grunt jumped up from the floor in a fright as that terribly annoying song played in his head again for the billionth time today. Its sickening cheerful tune resonating from the intercom like a screeching scavenging fowl. How could anyone stand listening to that song?

The krogan growled in anger at it and tried clutching at his Garr action figure, expecting it to be in his hand. Instead, he saw nothing. He could've sworn he had just found it, blast! Enraged, he stood up, trying to see if he had dropped it again. It was only then he realized, he was in his room.

Why was he in his room? He was in the Cargo Bay just seconds ago. Why was he back here? Hell, if he woke up anywhere, he expected it to be the infirmary. Wasn't there an explosion? He saw it, right? It had engulfed him and everyone.

He rushed out the door of his room, making a beeline for the window that looked down on the cargo bay itself. He saw the bay in pristine condition. As if nothing had happened. No scorch marks, no burns, no damage, hell he didn't even see that weird conduit thingy set up at all. He clutched at the space between his snout and eyes. Had it been just a dream? But, why had he heard that song again? It made no sense. He could've sworn he had only heard it today, not last night or anything.

Perhaps it was just morning confusion, some sort of leftover programming from the tank. He'd figure it out later. He'd get breakfast first, that always set him straight. If it was just a dream, he'd probably forget about it before too long. Yet, as he rode the elevator up to the crew quarters, he couldn't help but feel like he was mistaken. Like that hadn't been a dream. That there was an explosion.

"Crazy, nonsense," he said to himself. "The cargo bay is fine. Nothing happened. Just a dream. May... maybe I heard that song somewhere else."

He kept insisting on this, or at least trying to. When the elevator reached his destination, he stepped and still kept thinking about what he had thought had happened. His memory was so vivid, the experiment, his lost action figure, Zek running in with a black eye and calling him a turtle and then the gravity going off, turning back on and boom! Everything blows up into a rainbow. If it had been a dream, it had been one very lifelike dream.

Lost in thought, Grunt kept on course for the kitchen. Again, food would set his mind at ease, then he could figure out what was going on. If he was crazy or if this was some stupid thing from the tank. But as he thought to himself, he felt his foot slide suddenly.

Oh no, was the gravity going off again? Was he still in the dream? Was this all in his head? Was-

Grunt's train of thought vanished when the back of his hump hit metal. The gravity wasn't off at all. He wasn't in a dream. He just had a terrible ache in his back now, how annoying. Some of the crewmembers rushed over to him, Hawthorne and Goldstein he believed their names were.

"Hey Grunt, you okay?" Hawthorne asked.

"Wow, you took a nasty spill there, big guy," Goldstein noted, holding out her hand to help him up.

Grunt took it and allowed himself to be lifted up, but found his foot felt wet and sticky. He had slipped on something someone spilled.

"Ah man, waste of good OJ," Hawthorne observed. "Sorry, Grunt, guess someone missed it."

Grunt heard the apology, but he was more confused than ever. First that terrible song, now the slip? This had happened before, this was how his day had started. Now, he was back at the beginning again and repeating the same events? What in the hell was going on?

* * *

He had hoped getting off the _Normandy_ would ease his mind, but in the walk from there to the _Serpent's_ docking station Grunt had only become more assured that something was incredibly wrong. On a random hunch, given what had happened when he woke up, he allowed BBR to play on his omni-tool. The broadcast was exactly the same. He was sure of it, he recognized it by fact he was playing a ton of annoying pop songs with excessively catchy tunes. If Boz was playing the same songs again that was one thing, but they were in the same order. The exact same order. The same calls came in over the line, the same requests, the same announcements from before, it was like a rerun or something.

Getting aboard the _Serpent_ only further proved his fears. He got to the pirate ship's mess hall and found it in its usual state of disorder. A mess everywhere, food and spilled ichor all about, half the occupants had slipped into drunken comas and the other half were singing the sea shanties of their ancestors fairly badly. Technically, the same as it always was. Except when he walked down the same route he took to the counter before, the same pirate fell off the table and landed in front of him in the same spot he remembered happening last time.

Then again, his dream could've been a prophetic vision, perhaps this was all happening for the first time. Thing was, he had never had such visions before. Ever. There was no precedent for any of this nonsense. He finally reached the counter, intent on solving this mystery. He found the _Serpent's_ bartender there, Row, currently doling out drinks.

"Hey there, Grunt," he greeted. "What brings your hunched back in here today?"

Same greeting as last time, or the first time, whatever, Grunt just knew that he remembered this happening.

"I was hoping you had more of those meat shank stickers," Grunt asked, a bit unsure if he should. "The ones with that sauce on'em."

Row instantly frowned in disappointment.

"Oh, sorry, Grunt I'm-"

"Out, there's more in storage but it will take time to prepare them right," Grunt finished for him.

"Uh, yeah," Row confessed. "How'd you-?"

"Nevermind," Grunt said, his sadness over missing his favorite snack in this whole fleet replaced by continued growing sense of dread.

Grunt's train of thought was interrupted by some shouting he thought sounded familiar. He looked behind him and watched two jackals start punching each other over a card game. Just like last time. One of them picked up a flagon and chucked it at his opponent. Just like last time. It missed the other Jackal. Again, just like last time. Someone shouted "Heads up!" Just like last time. What was different was his reaction. Grunt ducked as the flagon, still filled to the brim with Ichor, hurtled towards him. The glass missed his head and slammed into the back of the bar.

"Whoa, nice reflexes," Row congratulated.

It hadn't been last time. Grunt had been caught off guard by the fight, hadn't noticed it until it was too late. This time, he had avoided it. Because he knew it was coming. Because this had happened before. Grunt had no idea what was happening, but he knew now, for certain, that events were repeating themselves. This was either an extreme case of deja vu or he had lived this day once before.

* * *

Grunt got to the shooting range after wandering about in a haze of thought. He needed to think about what had happened. Why it had happened. None of this made sense. How could you live the same day twice? How could you possibly know every little thing that had happened to you ahead of time? It couldn't be just a dream or chance or luck. Something was wrong and yet he seemed to be the only one who knew anything about it. No one else seemed to be confused about their day repeating on them. Everything was normal to them, as normal as life on this makeshift fleet could be.

When he got to the shooting range that became all the more evident. The Marines, soldiers and ODSTs were all busy trying to top each other's scores. Scores that they had beaten, that Grunt knew they had beaten and were now doing so again. For him, it couldn't be more confusing and he just couldn't understand why. Nothing could be wrong with him, he was sure of it. He was pure krogan, he didn't hallucinate, he didn't imagine things.

And yet here he was reliving events he had already been through. Such as someone managing to beat his high score in the close combat area sectioned off from the rest of the shooting gallery. He saw the board change as he watched. It infuriated him all over again, that he had slipped off the board like that. Not as angry as last time though, when he had grabbed a gun and run through the course like a maniac, failing to score higher than his previous time. That had just been all the more humiliating.

The person who had beaten him was a one Corporal Travers, one of the ODSTs. Grunt thought he spotted him among the crowd, laughing it up on how he had beat the krogan's score. Probably gave him a sense of pride or something to know he beat an alien. Well, Grunt would fix that. He'd play it smarter than last time, go in like a krogan, not a rabid animal. There was a difference, no matter what some turians might say. Krogan were brutal, ruthless, powerful. They were not diseased or mad. Battle was in the blood, not an outside influence from a virus.

He took out his Claymore shotgun, intent on making a point this time. When he got to the start of the course, he prepared himself, thinking back to Shepard's lessons from the battlefield. He rushed through the starting gate when the buzzer sounded, moving swiftly through the makeshift corridors of the kill house constructed for the UNSC soldiers to train on. One by one, targets made from spare sheets of metal popped up. Grunt fired on each, refusing to stop moving for a second. Every shot required a quick reload of course, but punching or running into the target counted as a hit. When he charged the one in the doorway he moved into the next room and used the spread of his shotgun to take down three targets in close proximity. He finish off the rest of the room soon after and was in the last third of the course. He moved down the corridor but he noticed something. The timing was off.

He hadn't noticed it when he ran the course in a rage, but the targets weren't popping up like they had before. They were shifting when they appeared now, popping up from behind the sandbags at different intervals, Grunt missed the one he thought was going to pop up first, but it stayed down in favor of another. He did eventually hit all the targets but it had taken too much time. When he exited the course, he was still five seconds behind Travers. It took all his willpower not to rage in anger.

He marched over to the quartermaster, a Marine stationed to maintain the range. To his credit, the hardened human veteran wasn't phased at all by the lumbering mountain of saurian muscle coming at him. Grunt was impressed, but only in the back of his mind. He now knew the real reason he had failed the first time. In his enraged state he hadn't been paying attention, but now he knew.

"The targets, you changed the timing of the targets," he declared. "What the hell?"

"Things were getting too complacent," the quartermaster explained. "People were figuring out the positioning and the timing. The Company Commanders all agreed, it was getting too predictable. We figured changing it up would keep the squads sharp. I mean, in real combat, the bad guys don't just wait in the same spot or pop out of the same door every time you enter a house. It's not realistic."

Grunt growled, even if he understood the logic it still wasn't fair. They had changed the course, no wonder his old score was invalid, Travers had gotten a more favorable set up for his weapon.

"That's not fair," Grunt claimed. "How can I beat my old score now if the course keeps changing on me?"

"We only change it every three days," the quartermaster assured. "Trust me, your score would've been beaten eventually and then another guy would beat him and so on and so forth. This keeps you competitive. And things are more fun when they aren't predictable."

Grunt snorted, like this human knew what predictable was. Had he been living in deja vu land since he woke up today? Probably not. All Grunt knew now was that his score had been bumped down and it was because someone else got lucky. Well, he'd try again anyway, as many times as possible until he got the pattern down. And he'd used different weapons too! Yeah, like a grenade launcher! That was allowed! He'd cause a bunch of explosions, tear the targets in seconds and blow up-

That was when it hit him. Explosion, there had been an explosion of light. The experiment with the relics, the one Tali and the other smart ladies were performing. The last thing he remembered before everything started repeating was something going wrong with the experiment. Something blew up! That had to be it, something involving that explosion had caused all this! Within an instant, Grunt took off, leaving the shooting range behind. He had to get back to the _Normandy_ , he had to stop that experiment!

* * *

Grunt rode the elevator down anxiously, not entirely sure what he'd find. When the doors opened, he found himself in the cargo bay and everyone looking at him. Tali, Shepard, Cortana and the Master Chief, all surprised to see him. He stepped out, eyeing the conduit device with the relics installed into it, the experiment was already underway, just like last time. Or the first time, whatever, he did not know what was going on but he knew he was going to stop it from happening again.

"Grunt, what's going on?" Shepard asked him.

"I've been having a... confusing day, Shepard," Grunt explained, his mind gravitating to the first thing he could remember doing at this moment. "Um, I can't find my Garr the Krogan Battlemaster action figure."

He quickly pointed to Tali as she groaned at the statement.

"Oh Keelah, here we go," she said, just like before.

"Grunt, I'm sure you just misplaced it," Shepard said. "You always misplace it. You-"

"Have him fight my dinosaurs and sharks and he gets lost somewhere or other," Grunt finished for him. "Yeah, you've told me."

Shepard was a bit taken aback, but not in the way Grunt had hoped.

"Uh, yeah," Shepard admitted. "Well, good to see that's finally stuck."

"No, I mean you told me this before," Grunt clarified. "We've had this conversation before, in this room, yesterday... or... today I mean."

Shepard and everyone else looked at Grunt confused, unsure of what was going on.

"Grunt, are you alright?" Shepard asked. "You're not making any sense."

The krogan had to think fast, which was not his specialty at all. He did not think all that much, he just did. The best he could do was repeat what he remembered.

"Look, you're testing to see how the crystal and Amplifying thingy work together, right?" Grunt asked. "You're not building a gun, you're seeing how they interact with each other."

Tali and Cortana looked a bit surprised to see Grunt so well informed, but their confusion gave way to a sense of pride.

"Grunt were you... did you see our notes?" Tali asked hopefully. "Are... are you interested in tech science?"

Grunt dashed her excited hopes quickly, there wasn't much time left. He had to stop this.

"No you told me what you were doing when I came down here before," he tried to explain. "When you were doing the experiment before. You told me about everything you were doing."

"Grunt we've only just started this experiment," Cortana informed him.

"No, you did it before, I was here," Grunt assured them. "There was something going wrong, the gravity failed then activated again and then everything exploded! Look, my Garr action figure is in this room over there! I know cause I found it just before everything went to white! Go see for yourself!"

Shepard looked to Chief who followed the order with a quick nod. He strode over to the corner of the room and rummaged around for a few seconds. He appeared again with the action figure in hand.

"Grunt, did you plant that here to have some fun with us?" Shepard incredulously asked. "Because this isn't funny."

"I know it's not funny," Grunt insisted. "Look something happened. Something went wrong and I saw it! Zek is going to come rushing down here any second with a black eye cause he did something to Taq a few hours ago!"

Taq perked up at that comment, torn away from her work.

"How do you know that?" She asked him.

At that moment the doors to the elevator opened and Zek rushed in. But something was different this time, he didn't look desperate or frantic, he looked utterly bewildered and the second he saw the relics on the conduit device, totally terrified. But he did have a black eye and that drew a few concerned looks from everyone.

"Oh no, Ocean no!" He screamed in horror. "It's all happening again! This is fucking real!"

That caught Grunt by surprise, the first thing someone else had done differently that wasn't a result of his own actions.

"Wait, you remember?" Grunt asked astonished, causing the pirate's head to turn towards him in a frightful manner. "The relics go haywire, gravity fails and-"

"Big fucking flash of light and the day is starting over again, yeah!" Zek confirmed. "Holy fuck, you remember! Please tell me someone else here remembers!"

Taq threw down her datapad and marched over to the console, looking furious.

"Okay, I don't know what the hell you two are pulling or how this idiot put you up to it, hunchback," she snarled. "But you're fucking with my experiment! That's my me time and you are diverting me from it for a stupid prank!"

"That is kinda bothersome, Grunt," Shepard told the krogan. "I think you've played this little game long enough, and I-"

"No, Shepard, this is real," Grunt assured them. "This all happened already! I don't know how I remember it or how he does, but it happened! I'm not lying!"

Shepard looked to Tali, a growing look of concern across his face. One shared by Tali, clear as day, even through her helmet.

"Zek I'd believe doing something this stupid," she confessed.

"Hey!" The Pirate shouted defensively.

"But Grunt... this is... pranks aren't really his thing," she reminded the Commander.

Shepard seemed to think it over for another second, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"I know," he admitted. "You're right. Grunt isn't one for mind games."

That much was right, Grunt preferred battle humor. Shepard considered it dark, but he just didn't get the point half the time. Usually when it involved knives. Heh, that was funny. Point, knives, very ironic. Wait no, wrong, Grunt shook his head, getting his train of thought back on track.

"Who cares right now," he shouted. "Shut it down! You gotta stop the experiment before-"

"Oh shit!"

Zek's shouted came as the alarm on the console sounded and Cortana started talking about fluctuations like before. The Relics went haywire, sparking like mad, the crystal shifting colors. Shepard and Chief moved to pull the plug, as before, and Grunt tried to run over to help them. Instead, the gravity shut off and he ended up flying into the air mid-run.

"Interesting," Halsey commented once more as she floated up into he air. "It would seem the gravity has-"

"Been inverted, I know!" Grunt shouted as he flailed uselessly. "I told you this would happen!"

Just as quickly the gravity came back and Grunt landed on his back. He pulled himself up, just in time to see Zek start slamming on the elevator door button.

"Come on! Come on, you bastard! Get me outta here before..."

There was sudden bright light resonating from the crystal.

"Oh fuck me!"

It was all Zek could say before the light exploded outward, enveloping them all.

* * *

 **Wake me up before you go go,**

 **Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!**

Grunt bolted up from the floor of his room again, that same stupid song again ringing in his brain.

"No," he cried. "No! No! It's starting again!"

He rushed out of his room in a panic and stared down at the cargo bay through the window. Back to its pristine and untouched self. As if nothing had ever happened. But it had, or would happen. Whatever, all Grunt knew was that something was seriously wrong and it wasn't with him.

"EDI, where's Shepard?!" He demanded to know.

"Commander Shepard is with Operative Lawson in her office," the AI explained. "They are currently discussing duty rosters for the next shift rotation and-"

Grunt was already rushing into the elevator, slamming on the buttons. He got up to the crew quarters and ran outside. Only to slip and fall once more onto his back. Once again, Hawthorne and Goldstein were there.

"Hey Grunt, you okay?" Hawthorne asked once again.

"Wow, you took a nasty spill there, big guy," Goldstein said, stretching out her hand.

Grunt screamed in anguish, pushing himself up and continuing to run towards Lawson's office. He didn't wait for the door to open, he pushed it the rest of the way himself. Miranda looked up suddenly from her computer and Shepard away from the datapad he had been staring at.

"Grunt, what the hel-?"

"You're planning an experiment with Tali and the other smart people with the relics and it's gonna explode and send me back in time and you gotta stop it before it happens again!"

Grunt had said it all so fast that neither the Commander nor Miranda had been able to fully process everything.

"Um... come again?" Shepard asked.

"Just call everyone!" The krogan demanded. "And find Zek! He remembers too!"

"Remember what?" Miranda asked, completely dumbfounded. "What is going-"

"Just call them up!" Grunt pleaded. "Seriously, do I look like I'm kidding?! Call them all into the big meeting room! Now! We have to warn them all now!"

Shepard looked cautiously at Miranda and then spoke up into the air.

"EDI, send a message to Tali and have her round up the experiment team," he requested. "Plus, Zek, I guess. I... I think we might have a problem with today's experiment."

* * *

Zek was sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth in fear as he looked all around him at the room. Everyone was more or less gathered in the _Normandy's_ briefing room, including Haverson, all those involved in the experiment and Shepard himself. Grunt was currently playing BBR on the radio, insisting on them listening to it to prove his point. He had already called that the song "Step by Step" would lead into "Angel of the Morning" and he hoped his next prediction, for lack of a better word that he knew to describe this, would push things over the top.

"Now Boz gets a call from a Private Swinson who wants him to play a song about an Octopus' Garden by a bunch of bug people."

"Commander this is getting idiotic," Haverson stated. "Can we please just-"

Grunt shushed him as the song ended and Boz came on.

" _Angel of the Morning, on our Ironic Songs to Play during a Firefight Showcase! Only on BBR could we be this random and totally get away with it! We're taking requests all day to mix this up, so lets see who our next caller is! Line one you're on the air! Name and request?"_

" _Yeah, uh, my name is Private Swinson, and if it's not too much trouble, I saw it on the list you guys sent out for every song available off of Joker's library. Can you play_ Octopus' Garden _by the Beatles?"_

"He says he remembers him and his mom singing it when he was a child," Grunt quickly said next. "She was into old English stuff."

" _Weird choice, but we have it,"_ Boz answered. _"It would be pretty ironic to start killing people when that's playing in the background."_

" _Yeah, but I just remember it cause my mom and I sung it together when I was a little kid,"_ Swinson explained. _"She was always into old world English stuff like that."_

The song soon started playing at Boz's behest, Grunt eyeing everyone in the room to make sure they understood the significance of what was happening. They all still seemed a bit skeptical. It was infuriating and he wished Zek would get up here and help him already instead of wallowing in the corner like an idiot.

"So you memorized a schedule," Haverson stated. "What does that prove?"

"I memorized hearing the same broadcast twice before and now three times," Grunt declared. "And there is no schedule to memorize, half of the songs on today are going to be requests."

"Or Zek is playing a very sick joke for some stupid reason," Haverson stated. "And has roped you into it for equally stupid reasons."

That was enough to get Zek to jump up from his corner. His fear overcome by his general dislike, if not hatred, for Haverson. He marched to the table, slamming his talons down on it.

"This is not funny! None of this is funny!" Zek screamed at him. "And as for schedules, no one gives Boz any marching orders on what songs to play on the station. He just does whatever he wants! I didn't tell him to come up with this weird ass idea for a showcase today."

Haverson didn't look convinced, but Grunt didn't care. If everyone would just listen to him it would start making more sense. It almost worked last time.

"Look, no one told me about the experiment Tali was conducting today and no one would've told Zek either," Grunt assured them.

"I know I didn't," Taq grumbled.

Zek growled back, but spoke for himself in any case.

"Look all I know is you're going to do something freaky with those relics downstairs in a few hours and everything is going to go to shit," he declared. "Resulting in whatever the fuck this is, just like the overgrown turtle says."

"I am not a turtle," Grunt snarled through his teeth.

Shepard looked to both Tali and Halsey.

"Is this at all possible?" He asked them both.

"Given we're dealing with unknown and highly advanced technology, I suppose," Halsey confessed. "But I'm not sure why any of this would happen as a result of what we were planning to do. Maybe a fault in our procedures we missed or the Amplifier could've transferred too much power. I can't be certain."

"We could do a separate analysis with the crystal beforehand," Cortana suggested, popping up from Chief's omni-tool. "Get a better understanding of its properties before we plug it into the conduit."

"If I'm being honest," Tali spoke up. "If this was just Zek I'd suspect it was a joke."

Zek looked incensed.

"Why do you keep saying that? It's the second time!" The pirate shouted in frustration.

Tali shook her head derisively.

"But Grunt being involved in this makes no sense," she concluded. "Pranks aren't his thing."

"No, they aren't," Shepard agreed.

"You said that before actually," Grunt confirmed. "Look it doesn't matter what you think. Just don't do the experiment today. Okay? If you don't do it, the explosion doesn't happen and the day won't rewind or whatever."

Shepard looked thoughtful for a moment, but Halsey quickly interjected.

"We can postpone, until all concerns are dealt with," she assured them. "If there is a threat of an explosion it would best we limit the chance."

"I can agree to that," Taq sighed. "Even if it means I have to wait on my answers for even longer."

"I'll go over the simulations with Mordin," Tali added. "Like Halsey said, maybe we missed something."

Grunt just sighed in relief, he had done it, he got them to delay the experiment. Now the explosion would never happen, the day would not rewind and he would not have to hear that stupid song again. Problem solved.

* * *

Grunt kept a vigil over the cargo bay, just to be sure Halsey or Taq didn't decide to go back on their word and mess up everything up. Tali wouldn't do that of course, She was krant and she trusted him. Besides, limiting a risk to the fleet was her whole thing.

Hours had passed though and the conduit had not been set up. It was all going to sort itself out in just a few minutes time. No explosion, no rewind, fine by him. Not just him either, Zek had now joined him at his side, staring down at the cargo bay.

"Nothing?" He asked.

Grunt shook his head.

"Oh good," he sighed in relief. "This got way too weird way too fast. I'm just happy it's over."

"All thanks to me of course," Grunt laughed. "Shepard knows he can trust me, that's why he believed me in the end."

Zek looked up at him rather incensed.

"Hey, I helped, I remember this day rewind thing too, ya know," he claimed.

"Yes but you're a known liar, so anything you claim is suspect," Grunt informed the kig-yar. "But my krant knows they can count on me and therefore they listened to me. I saved everyone."

"Pft, whatever, turtle," Zek grumbled.

Grunt growled at that, but the kig-yar was unmoved.

"So you gonna go down there and get your silly action figure?" He asked.

"Garr the Krogan Battlemaster is not silly," Grunt declared. "He is a proud warrior, the strongest of all krogan, with the power to crush any who dare stand against him and his krant."

"Like who?" Zek asked.

"Uh, dinosaurs mostly," Grunt claimed. "When he's not riding some into battle against the shark people."

Zek looked up at him rather bewildered.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, he's amazing," Grunt declared. "He's just like Shepard."

Zek had by now opened his omni-tool and he looked into the codex installed inside.

"Says here he's part of an action figure line as one of the villains of Captain Cosmic," the kig-yar revealed.

"That's a total lie, turian propaganda," Grunt declared, shutting down the kig-yar's tool abruptly. "He's amazing and powerful and stomps his enemies. He's the best."

Zek laughed uproariously.

"Oh Ocean, you're like a giant child!" He said.

"I am not, I just grew up in a tank," Grunt shouted. "I only got out a few months back when Shepard released me."

"Stunted mental development," Zek laughed once more. "Explains so much. You are just too precious, a little fledgling turtle thing."

Grunt grabbed the Jackal's beak and shut it tight in his grip.

"I would probably stop insulting the clearly stronger alien that could crush my head in seconds if I were you, bird brain."

Zek frantically nodded, shouting "okay okay" through his shut beak. Grunt of course released him, he wasn't worth the effort in doing more than idly threatening. As the kig-yar brushed himself off though, Zek's zeal returned.

"Ugh, just what I needed, a bigger more burly version of a sangheili aboard this fleet," he grumbled.

"I am nothing like them," Grunt declared. "I am pure krogan. I am strength and power. My kind would never willingly subject itself to the whims of anyone, let alone this race of prophets."

"Well then, maybe if you had been in those mandible faced morons' place then we could've avoided this whole stupid war to begin with," Zek claimed. "Such a shame to think on what might have been."

Before Grunt could respond to the comment, a light started coming from the cargo bay. He looked down, astonished by what he saw. Floating mid-air, merged together it seemed, was the Amplifier and the Crystal. They began sparking and resonating with insane light.

"Oh no," Grunt realized. "It's... it's still happening!"

"What? But we stopped the experiment!" Zek screeched. "They didn't do the freaky bullshit! We were done! We were out!"

EDI's voice called out over the intercom.

"Warning, all hands!" She cried. "There has been an energy resonance cascade detected in the cargo bay!"

At that moment there was a shudder and both Grunt and Zek lifted from the ground. Gravity was gone.

"Fuck! No! Shit! This isn't fair! We did everything right this time!"

"Shut up!" Grunt shouted at him, trying to swim through the air towards the elevator. "We need to get down there! We have to stop it!"

"Stop it how?!" Zek demanded to know. "The gravity is gonna switch back on any second and then-"

Both fell to the floor suddenly, signaling they were indeed out of time. Grunt stood up to get one last look at the cargo bay before an explosion erupted and the light enveloped them.

* * *

 **Wake me up before you go go,**

 **Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!**

Grunt screamed in anger as he woke up, slamming his fist into the floor. That damn song again!

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

* * *

"It won't work," he told everyone in the briefing room, sounding more exasperated than ever.

"What do you mean it won't work?" Tali asked. "If we don't do the experiment-"

"It still happens," Grunt stated. "I've told you all five times already. Counting the first time, we've been through this meeting six times now. Me and Zek tried to prevent it anyway by shooting the relics when they appear or pulling them apart and slashing them with a plasma sword, nothing has worked."

Zek just groaned.

"We keep running through the same six hours, doing everything to stop that stupid explosion and nothing works!" He declared. "I don't even know why it keeps happening to us! Why us two? How come none of you people remember it? You were there when it started!"

Halsey looked thoughtful at that statement, considering their options.

"I believe they need to see Professor Solus," she claimed. "Run some tests. Perhaps the answer to this problem, if there is one, lies in our two companions here."

Grunt stepped back at that.

"Oh no! No way! Shepard, you know how I feel about medical stuff! Especially tests!" He said, pointing defiantly. "I hate tests! They always involve needles and poking and other crap!"

"Oh get over it you fucking baby," Zek snarled. "We have worse problems than some goddamn doctor's needles!"

Grunt looked about ready to charge at the idiot bird, but Shepard stopped him.

"Grunt, relax," he ordered. "Look, I know how you feel about doctors and medical tests, but we don't have time to argue. If what you say is true we only have a six hour window and we've used up enough of that already with this briefing. Who knows how long Mordin will need to find out what is wrong with you? Why this only seems to be happening to you and Zek? The sooner you go, the sooner we'll get answers, otherwise we'll all reset to the start of the day and you'll have to go through all of this again."

Grunt sighed, he knew his battlemaster was right. He had to put himself on the line for the krant. What kind of krogan could he call himself if he didn't. He needed to understand this threat in order to stop it. The only way he could do that was by giving Mordin a chance to look at him.

"Okay, fine," he relented. "Mordin can start his tests. If only because anything he does to me is going to get erased anyway."

Shepard nodded in acceptance. Grunt remained apprehensive, but what other choice did he have? Something was keeping him from forgetting like everyone else. If figuring out why had to be the key to finding out how to stop this.

* * *

Mordin's tests weren't entirely invasive, not everything required cutting him open at least. Grunt still winced at every needle. It wasn't even the pain, not really, it was something foreign being stuck into him. For the krogan in general, that was a sore spot, especially when it involved a salarian doing it. He did his best to handle it, but Zek was considerably worse at it. He had practically bolted out of his seat when Mordin had required a blood sample and chose to stick the needle in the pirate's ass.

At least the display had given Grunt a good chuckle. As far as results though, there had been very little. Mordin did brain scans, urine tests, cured tissue samples, ran several full body medical procedures and even x-rays. Nothing seemed to work. As far as Mordin could tell there was nothing wrong with either of them.

"Physically in good health," he listed off. "Stress levels high. Reasonable for situation. No fever. No foreign biological elements. Brainwaves normal. Very puzzling. Puzzling indeed."

"Look frog man, we're running out of time," Zek growled. "We've been here for hours. Don't you got anything?"

Mordin gave it another moment's thought.

"Relics source of problem. Possible cause as well." He concluded. "Need a moment."

Mordin went to the back of his lab and began tinkering. For several minutes, he rushed around, typing on computers or working on equipment. Eventually, after about half an hour or so, he bothered to fill them in. He held his omni-tool, activating a function that turned the resonating light green.

"Shepard ordered work on side project," he explained. "Taq needing Amplifier to find other relics problematic. Needed solution that would not put future expeditions at risk. Artifact capture by Covenant unacceptable. Working on frequency scanner for relics in future. Pick up unique energy signature."

"You had that thing the whole time?!" Zek screeched. "The fuck did you put us through all that other shit for?"

"Still needed to build it," Mordin argued. "Process data. Wasn't priority until just now. Did other tests to eliminate other possibles."

"Whatever, hurry," Grunt demanded. "What is wrong with us?"

Mordin scanned over their bodies with his omni-tool.

"Possible explosion similar to energy surge on _Dauntless_ ," the salarian claimed. "Effect on Tali'Zorah horrific. Perhaps similar situation."

"No one is talking to me in my head," Grunt assured him. "Unless you count that song about waking up and crap."

"Not the same," Mordin stated rather obviously. "Good. Second memory creature terrifying prospect. Would prefer to avoid it."

Mordin's scan stopped abruptly over Grunt's shoulder where it began flashing profusely. The salarian looked at it curiously and then enhanced the scan. A holographic image of the inside of Grunt's shoulder appeared and highlighted a small, barely visible shard embedded into him.

"The hell is that?" Grunt asked.

"Oh my."

It was all Mordin said before heading over to Zek and taking a look at him with the same scan. He found another shard of some kind. This time stuck in the pirate's forehead. Naturally Zek was freaking out.

"The fuck is that and why is it in my head?" He demanded to know.

"Fascinating," Mordin thought aloud. "Didn't show up on other scans. X-rays unable to see it. Couldn't see it."

"Why? What is it?" Grunt asked insistently.

"Part of Crystal," Mordin answered dutifully. "Somehow embedded into your bodies. Possibly caused by initial explosion. Can't explain why or how. Shard is no doubt connected to your immunity."

"Well why didn't you pick it up sooner?" Zek demanded to know, squeezing at his forehead with his talons.

"Simple. Not actually there." Mordin answered.

"The fuck you say?" Zek asked, his patience growing thing. "Then what the fuck is on that screen there?"

"Shard only appears on this scan," Mordin explained. "Shard isn't part of local space-time. Outside it. Scan located shard only because it can detect residual energy. Believe shard in some kind of flux state."

"The hell does any of that mean?" Grunt asked impatiently.

"Means shards exist within your body," Mordin stated. "But also outside space and time. It is there, but isn't. Need to do more tests. Talk to Halsey. Bring her in."

There was a rumble within the ship as alarms began blaring.

"Too late," Grunt said.

Moments later, Grunt, Zek, Mordin and everything else not tied down were floating in mid-air as another rumble shook the whole ship. Zek and Grunt slammed into the ceiling as Mordin made to grab onto the edge of a desk.

"Quick," Mordin shouted up at them both. "Imagine reset imminent?"

"What does it look like?" Zek asked frantically.

"Remember then," he stated, keeping his grip firm. "Make me build scanner again. Run more tests with Doctor Halsey. Shards in you key to solution. Have to find out why and how."

The gravity returned, slamming them all back down to the ground. There was the sound of an explosive eruption next and a multicolored light filled the ship. Grunt groaned as everything went white again.

* * *

 **Wake me up before you go go,**

 **Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!**

Grunt rose, his rage building. He smashed the intercom once and then several more times for good measure. This was becoming tiresome.

* * *

Zek and Grunt now sat in the _Normandy's_ medical bay, waiting for Halsey to come back. Tali, Shepard, Chakwas and Mordin were there with them. They were staring at the images of the shards embedded in both the krogan and kig-yar's bodies. They were searching for answers, but Grunt honestly wished they'd speed it up. Six hours wasn't much time to work with and they were wasting it talking about this stuff.

"It's insane is what it is," Chakwas argued. "The Crystal exploded? But it looked intact when Halsey brought it in for further study."

"The shards are inside them," Tali reiterated. "Well, inside them but not."

"Yes, temporal anomaly," Mordin claimed. "Additional tests reveal similar energy signature to that of slipspace ruptures. Shards are clearly a warp within fabric of space-time that-"

"Oh for the love of the Ocean, we've been through this!" Zek declared. "We've already gone through this whole fucking explanation already! Can we just skip to the end?"

"Zek, you might know where this all leads, but we're in the dark," Shepard reminded him. "We don't remember the rewind."

"Well I do," Zek declared. "And I've had to sit on this damn table twice now with you all going through this whole spiel. I've had to listen to Doctor Frog here lecture on and on about this shit with possible theories that end up going nowhere and it makes my brain hurt."

"Professor," Mordin stated, sounding rather perturbed. "Title is Professor. Appreciate getting it right."

"Whatever!" Zek shouted. "I'm sick of going through these conversations constantly. The same briefing, the same astonishment, and now the same science class! Well fuck that! I bothered to record this whole part last time with my omni-tool."

Zek pressed a button on his omni-tool, looking rather smug at his brilliant scheme. However, nothing played. Zek continued smashing at the play button, growing more and more agitated as he did. As he began snarling through his beak, Tali bothered to interject.

"Zek, if the rewinds erase all progress, then whatever you recorded is gone," Tali informed him. "As in, it never existed."

Enraged, Zek pulled his omni-tool device out of its connection port and smashed it on the ground.

"Fucking piece of junk! Fuck you! Worthless!"

Grunt was not at all amused by the tantrum, especially since it just made him regret who he was stuck with in this terrible scenario even more.

"Even I could've told you that would happen, idiot," the krogan chimed in.

Zek tried to lunge at Grunt, but the big reptilian simply smacked him away. The kig-yar slammed into some medical equipment and rose to his feet in anger. Shepard, however, held him back.

"No fighting in my medical bay!" Chakwas ordered.

"Both of you, cool it," Shepard ordered. "This is not the time to be throwing punches and insults at each other, we need to solve this problem."

"I don't even know what this fucking problem is," Zek shouted in anger. "Let alone how to solve it!"

"It's called a time loop and you two are presently stuck in it."

The voice was from Doctor Halsey and she was not alone. Stepping through the medical bay doors were the Master Chief, Taq, Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Colonel Holland. In Halsey's hands was the crystal, which Zek instantly backed away from in fright.

"Keep that shit away from me!" He demanded.

"Relax, it can't harm you," Halsey assured him. "Not more than it already has anyway."

"What's with the full house, Doctor?" Shepard asked. "Did you get some results?"

"Yes, thankfully Grunt and Zek's information from their previous loop provided me with a greater understanding. Zek suggesting that I ask Taq for help made things go faster as well." Halsey replied rather astutely. "We now can definitively say we are trapped in a time loop, with Grunt and Zek the only two able to remember every detail after said loop resets. I felt it prudent to bring everyone here in order to fully explain the situation. Not that it matters, considering none of us will remember this conversation in a few hours."

"Best to just skip the pleasantries, Doctor," Whitcomb declared. "What is going on here?"

Halsey turned to the Chief, who activated his Omni-Tool, allowing Cortana to appear. She brought with her an animated holographic file of the Crystal relic. It appeared intact, just as the one in Halsey's arms. The Doctor set the crystal down on a nearby table and then proceeded to explain.

"What you think you see is an intact Crystal," Halsey began. "But it is not. It is shattered. We cannot perceive it as so because we lack the proper visual frequency. However, Taq was able to use Mordin's new device to better enhance our own scans of the relics. We now have a proper image of what the relic looks like."

Cortana then implemented the enhanced scan results onto the holographic file. What they revealed was a partially destroyed crystal, the main body all that remained of a fractured husk. Yet they could see a faint outline of where the rest of the crystal used to be, as what appeared to be smoke floated around the remains in a tight formation. One that mirrored the original crystal's size.

"The cloud or smoke you're seeing is in fact residual radiological energy," Halsey explained. "It is similar to a slipspace rupture that is just about to break through back to normal space. There are a few differences, of course, but that is the long and short of it."

"So why can't we see it with the naked eye?" Holland asked. "Why does it still look whole?"

"Near as I can tell, because from our perspective it hasn't shattered yet," Halsey explained. "We are seeing the crystal in our present reality, one where we have not yet done the experiment that broke it. However, the event has already occurred to the crystal. So it exists in a state of flux, both broken and yet not."

Schrödinger's cat in a less cuddly form," Cortana summed up rather succinctly. "The contradictory state of the relic is evidently untenable, causing a distortion in space-time. Reality itself is rejecting the reaction caused by the explosion and trying to fix it. Hence the time loop. It's our reality trying to solve the contradiction. As long as the crystal is in this state of flux, the loop will persist."

"It is now evident the Crystal can bend space-time to its will," Taq continued. "Much like a slipspace drive can, but to a greater extent than we could ever imagine possible before now. The shattering and subsequent state of flux were most likely caused when too much energy pooled from the Amplifier into the Crystal. As the Amplifier does, it increased its already insanely powerful functions two-fold. More than the Crystal could handle at any given time."

"So for once, this is all your fault!" Zek declared. "HA! Call me satisfied, especially after the black eye."

Taq sneered at him.

"We were dealing with complete unknowns here," Taq argued. "There's no precedent for any of this in any of our collective applied sciences. We couldn't have possibly foreseen this happening."

"Right now, all I care about is fixing it," Shepard stated firmly. "We know where two of the shards are, or aren't as it were. Where's the rest of the crystal?"

"I'd still like to know how having these things in us helps us remember every single loop thing," Grunt interjected.

Cortana brought up the images of the shards found in both Zek and Grunt, along with various readings alongside them.

"The shards inside you, for lack of a more accurate term, are there by complete chance," Cortana explained. "You were close enough to the initial explosion it seems for them to embed themselves in a slightly more stable capacity. When the loop initiates, you are returned to the time and place you were six hours ago, but your memory remains intact because you are in close enough proximity to the energy spike that occurs during the restart. Essentially, the Crystal sees you as part of the initial explosion. You have a direct link to the origin of this anomaly, granting you immunity from its effects."

"That's it! You both said the first time this happened you were both closer to the relics and the conduit device than any of us," Tali said, the realization creeping in. "Grunt, you had floated over to the conduit and stood up near it when you discovered your Garr action figure. And Zek, you were moving to help Taq up just as the explosion erupted. Your body shielded her from the shard that got stuck in your head."

"Oh great, so I try to show concern for the female who hit me for no good reason and this is my reward?" Zek snarled in disgust. "The universe is an asshole."

"Speak for yourself," Taq snapped back. "I'd rather be in your position. In a few hours, I'm going to forget about all this and be blissfully unaware of this insanely fascinating phenomenom."

"It is not fascinating, believe me," Zek countered. "I did you a favor."

"It doesn't matter if this is fascinating or not," Shepard frustratedly repeated. "I want it stopped. Cortana, where are the other shards?"

The AI could only shrug.

"Scattered about the fleet most likely and naked to the human eye," she suggested. "It is possible we could reconfigure Mordin's scanning protocol into a device that can locate them all. Unfortunately, given the amount of mass missing from the crystal itself, we are likely looking at hundreds, maybe thousands of shards out there that we need to collect. We'd need to bring the crystal close to one in order for it to reintegrate with the whole. That would probably solve the problem, but there are... greater concerns."

"Like what?" The Master Chief asked.

"At Halsey's behest I did an analysis concerning time stamps of certain missions," Cortana explained. "As well as what information we've recovered from the _Gettysburg_ computers and cross-referenced it with what we salvaged from the ONI station Haverson had Zek and the ODSTs raided. I'm afraid the crystal was already active before we did anything to it."

The room went silent, unsure of what the AI was getting at. Thankfully, she soon continued before the obvious questions could pile on.

"Near as I can tell, the crystal has created a massive time distortion anomaly," she explained. "We are actually three weeks in the past, as is a very significant portion of the galaxy."

"What?" Whitcomb said, absolutely astonished. "We've gone back in time? When? How?"

"I can't say for certain when it happened, but it did," Cortana assured them. "The mission time stamps and data point entries all check out. We have gone three weeks into the past. And chances are if the Crystal is connected to that time distortion, then so is the time loop it has created as well. I can't be certain how far reaching it is, but I suspect a large portion of galaxy is currently reliving the same six hours over and over again and not even knowing it."

"My God," said Holland, voicing the shock of everyone.

Everyone but Halsey of course, who just seemed to nod her head at it all.

"Yes, I suspected as much," she concluded. "Thank you, Cortana, this puts things into a greater sense of perspective."

"If this is true, then we need to get to work on a solution, fast," Chief declared. "Cortana, what can we do?"

"We can't do anything," Cortana informed him. "In a few hours, no one here is going to remember even having this revelation. Well, almost everyone."

The AI looked over to Grunt and Zek, who both now felt extremely uncomfortable with all the attention.

"What?" Was all Grunt could muster to ask.

Tali raised her hands to her visor and groaned outwardly.

"Oh Keelah, you don't mean..."

"I'm afraid so, Tali," Cortana informed the quarian, sounding equally dismayed. "The only hope any of us have, lies in the hands of Grunt and Zek right now."

The room, more or less, filled with terrified or defeated faces. Grunt didn't like the lack of confidence in his abilities, but he couldn't exactly argue with their obvious concerns. He knew what his capabilities were more than most people and he could not pretend that he was in any way suited to solve this kind of problem. He just wasn't. Even Zek admitted as much, as he summed up everyone's thoughts rather bluntly.

"Well, we're all fucked then."

* * *

Altering Mordin's device to track down invisible crystal shards wasn't the difficult part. The frequency used by Halsey to reveal the true state of the Crystal just needed to be uploaded into its algorithm processes. Of course, Zek and Grunt were made to memorize the frequency modulation code. It was the only way to keep things from being reset completely and maximize their search time on every loop. This was accomplished by repeating the code over and over in their headsets.

It was annoying, boring and incredibly tedious. Something about the complex science of space-time, ancient tech and the understanding of how the brain and the subconscious mind worked. So the code was basically just a string of crap neither the krogan or space pirate could understand. Grunt only accepted it because it was slightly better than having that stupid song he kept waking up to stuck in his head.

The hard part was the actual search. By Cortana's own estimates, corroborated by both EDI and Legion, there were likely thousands of shards of varying size spread throughout the fleet. Finding them all would take time, a lot of time. Which meant, the pair needed to get started. They were more or less given free reign of the whole fleet. Thankfully every vessel within the makeshift flotilla had currently been docked with the _Ascendant Justice-Gettysburg_ Carrier, making it easier to get around. Zek, however, maintained an insistence on checking the _Serpent_ by himself. Grunt was hardly surprised, he imagined there were secrets the ragged bird hard no interest in sharing with the only other person aboard who could remember them.

Not that it mattered, since it would be a while before they even got to the _Serpent_. They had four other ships to search and one of them was essentially the size of a small city. Circumnavigating the whole place would take forever. They would've split up, but they needed the crystal to reabsorb each shard. Once they found one, they'd have to lock onto its position hold the crystal up to it for a few moments. Their own shards within them were immune for the moment as they were still in a semi-stable state. It prevented them from realigning with the relic properly. Halsey postulated they could only be returned to the crystal once enough of its original mass had been returned.

It was for the best in any case, losing said shards would only doom both of them be trapped in the loop with no memory of the events transpiring. A prospect that was even more horrifying to Zek and Grunt than being made aware of this insane situation.

The shards were found all over the place, in public and private. They were never close to one another in significantly large numbers though, as expected due the reach and power of the explosion. Halsey believed that they would not have gone too far out into space, as they would all likely retain a circumference close to their point of origin. If the tracker did lead them towards the dark void, they would need to get a shuttle or space suit on and go after it that way.

Every now and then, Grunt and Zek had to go into a private room or difficult area to get a shard. Such an example was one of the women's showers that had been set up for female personnel of the UNSC. Grunt hesitated to enter without permission. Zek almost agreed, but the kig-yar suddenly grew belligerent over the whole matter and stormed the facilities alone. The ladies inside weren't exactly pleased to see Zek in there, even though he kept insisting he wasn't a pervert, wasn't there for them and didn't find human women attractive anyway.

"I should be more insulted at your accusation that I would even think of ogling any of the fat breasts of you hairless primates!"

"Are you being sexist or racist now?" One Marine had asked.

"Right now, whatever pisses you off more, honestly!"

That had not exactly resolved the situation. By the time he had dragged himself out of there, Zek had a few more bruises to match his black eye. Grunt at least found it funny, not as funny as Taq did though when he gave a quick progress report.

"Serves the bastard right!" She had exclaimed.

Lesson learned. From then on, they decided they would ask for a woman to head inside for them or for the place to be cleared out before they checked.

Sometimes the shards were in an actually fun place to go, like the shooting range. Grunt convinced the quartermaster to pause exercises until they were done. He also tried the CQC kill house again, hoping to beat Travers' score and reclaim his pride. He had done better this time, but he still couldn't get the timing right, finishing behind Travers by two seconds. Infuriating, but Grunt would have to wait to try again. He still had a mission.

There were more misunderstandings and various encountered problems. Ripping up panels to get to shards inside the walls, going through crates upon crates to get them. One shard had ended up in a grenade. There had probably been a better way to get at it, but Zek decided "fuck it", as he usually did and tossed the thing. No one was hurt in the resulting explosion, but there was a small fire alert.

Zek was not the only reckless member of the duo though, Grunt was more than happy to bulldoze into a wall, through a door or smash computer console to get one of the shards directly. The humans on the bridge of the _Gettysburg_ proper had not been particularly happy with that method of collection. Nor did any of the human engineers appreciate his rather inelegant means of tearing open valuable equipment to get any shards detected inside. In Grunt's mind, they were all going to get fixed anyway once things rewinded on them, so really, what did it matter if a section of the ship lost power?

When they eventually got to their first space walk, Grunt got a bit distracted with the zero-G environment and ended up dislodging himself from the ship's hull when he jumped too high. The jump pack got him back, but he ended up destroying a sensory system in the process.

The worst moment for him was when he had found a shard within the maintenance corridors, only for him to get stuck in the small space. He was unable to pull himself out, struggling to fit through. Zek just laughed, called him fat a bunch of times and laughed more when Grunt threatened to punch his skull in. Eventually Zek ran away heckling the krogan and Grunt waited out the rest of the loop trapped in that tiny corridor. Naturally, he did slam Zek into the floor next he saw him. Zek still felt it had been worth it.

Experiencing the loops had become almost routine. It was quickly discovered that the _Normandy_ was not the only ship to encounter its direct effects. Every time, without fail, power fluctuated, gravity failed, returned and then a bright flash of color enveloped everything. Grunt would wake up to that damn song, probably smash the intercom in frustration and repeat the process again and again and again and again. Grunt made a game of it at one point, how fast could he smash that stupid intercom so he wouldn't have to hear as much of that damn song.

Not everyone on the crew could be informed of what was happening in time, not that it would matter if they had been as they would soon forget before long. Most of the _Normandy's_ direct crew knew, but the batarians, Jackals and most of the UNSC were unaware. So when the start of the next loop occurred a lot of people were scared out of their damn mind as to what was going on. Gravity failing and lights flickering was never a good sign of anything after all. It made Grunt painfully aware that this was not just happening to them, but to everyone trapped in this strange bubble of time. They had to fix it, for everyone's sakes.

So despite his reckless regard for personal property in the pursuit of that goal, Grunt remained committed to that mission. He could not say the same of his compatriot. On this loop, Zek never showed up. He didn't come when called to the briefing or when Mordin and Halsey gave Grunt the tracker and crystal, he was nowhere for much of the search. Eventually, fed up with waiting around, Grunt asked EDI over his comm to find the Jackal leader. Apparently, he was in the _Normandy_ crew quarters and had arrived shortly after Grunt had left there. The stupid bird was avoiding him.

The krogan marched back, finding the scruffy avian buccaneer playing with a plate of mashed potatoes as if he were a child. Enraged, Grunt slammed his fist onto the table, earning a bored and uninterested glance from his supposed partner.

"Where the hell were you?" He demanded to know. "I was searching sector port fourteen of the hangar alone!"

"Relax, Turtle Boy," Zek grumbled. "I'm just taking this loop off, alright."

"What?" Grunt responded, almost in disbelief.

"I want a fucking break," Zek reiterated. "Okay? I want a break. Is that so hard to understand?"

Grunt was still angry, but he sat down across from the pirate, intent on hearing him out at least.

"I haven't slept since this started but I'm not tired, my body is in a constant state of alert and aware," Zek claimed. "I'm never sleepy anymore, it's like insomnia but with none of the symptoms. My body reverts to normal and normal for me right now is a fucking hangover that will not go away. Because just as it starts, rewind! Square one all over again!"

"Is that why you're being a constant annoyance every loop?" Grunt asked. "More so than you usually are."

"Aren't you fucking clever?" Zek responded derisively. He then shouted aloud to the room; "Fucking detective this one!"

Zek began sculpting something in his mashed potatoes in a frantic, almost crazed manner.

"I tell ya, Turtle," he said, his voice becoming more manic in tone as he spoke. "I can't take much more of this. Reciting that stupid code from memory, going up and down this fucking carrier, encountering the same fucking people in the same fucking halls saying the same fucking things every fucking goddamn time is enough to drive some folks up the walls."

"The banality is tiresome," Grunt had to agree.

"If I go through much more of this, then I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Zek said, laughing rather strangely at the prospect. "Except maybe go completely, utterly and irreparably WHACKO!"

Zek held up his plate of mashed potatoes, revealing a crazy face drawn into the white fluff and curds. He then dropped the whole thing back onto the table and held his head in his hands. Grunt was unimpressed.

"This is hard on both of us," Grunt informed him. "You are not the only one suffering. Hell, WE'RE not the only ones suffering."

"Oh please, they're blissfully unaware of what's going on and we're stuck in it," Zek declared accusingly. "And what's your biggest problem? You wake up to a fucking song you don't like? Is that your main concern, Turtle? Seriously?"

Grunt snorted, not appreciating Zek's tone.

"That song is infuriating," Grunt insisted. "It is stupid beyond belief and gets lodged in your head. It is an inane lyrical atrocity about some idiot who needs to be woken up to go dance frivolously with someone. It's insultingly moronic."

Zek just grinned sinisterly at the statement.

"Ah, I see, not much of a dancer are ya?" He laughed.

"It is not a thing many krogan do," Grunt argued. "We prefer our mating rituals to be more succinct, heartfelt, meaningful. Gifts mostly, full contact wrestling, the recitation of battle cries and declarations of devotion. That's what I have learned at least. What I understand."

"Well, kig-yar and dancing are a big deal," Zek claimed. "It's one of the many ways we express ourselves, how we revel in true freedom and lose ourselves to it. I used to be a great dancer myself, had the best moves you'd ever see."

Grunt didn't exactly believe it, Zek was known to exaggerate often, embellish always. The Jackal continued all the same, growing more regretful as he did.

"Last time I ever danced was on the bridge of the _Serpent_ , years ago, with Taq," he said, his manic grin evaporating into a sneer of self-loathing. "Not long after, like a week, we were in our own private room. The best nights of my life. And I fucked it up because I was a stupid young idiot who didn't know he had the best thing he could ever hope for. And now, I'm trapped being reminded of that every six hours on a constant loop. Because every single time the world rewinds the first image I see is the one female I have ever really loved punching me in the face for some reason or another. A reason I can't remember because I'm still too drunk off my ass to recall and she refuses to tell me."

Zek glared up at Grunt as he finished speaking, his gaze growing cold.

"So don't give me shit about how you hating a stupid song is the worst thing that you could ever wake up to," he informed the young krogan. "Because it's nothing compared to what I have to go through!"

Grunt wanted to be angrier with him, but he couldn't. A part of him honestly felt sorry for the Jackal. He was clearly not having the best of times right now. Regardless though, they had a mission and they needed to get back on track. He had to think, what would Shepard say to fix this?

"Uh, look, I... get this isn't easy for you," he confessed, the Jackal still looking at him incredulously. "But it won't fix itself. The best thing we can do is keep at it as long as possible. As long as we can keep moving forward. We need to, it's all we can do. Too many people are counting on us."

"Like I said, we're all fucked then," Zek groaned.

As Zek placed his head on the table in resignation of tedium of his current existence, Hawthorne approached the duo. He was carrying a datapad, doing his own work, but he placed it down when he got close.

"Hey, shouldn't you guys be out there solving the whole time looping thing?" He asked. "It's all anyone is talking about on this boat."

"Oh no worries, it's solved," Zek said snidely. "And we discovered a side effect of it makes you extremely virile, your refractory periods have been completely eradicated."

Hawthorne looked at Grunt, who could only sigh.

"He is suffering through a hangover that is constantly repeating," Grunt explained. "He's not taking it well."

"Wow, that sucks," Hawthorne observed. "And to think, I didn't consider the downside of being able to relive the same day over and over. I was too focused on all the cool stuff."

"What cool stuff?" Zek snarled. "The constant run around and dull as fuck routine?"

"You kidding, right? I'd figure you'd have discovered an upside," Hawthorne said in disbelief. "I mean everything resets, no one remembers what you did, there's no lasting damage, you make a mistake it's undone in a few hours..."

Grunt realized what Hawthorne was saying and while he was usually slow on the uptake, looking at Zek he saw the pirate was slowly realizing it too. And the small smile growing on his face caused great concern in the krogan's mind.

"Wait, Hawthorne, no!"

But it was too late, far too late.

"I mean there are literally no consequences for anything," the human said, not skipping a beat. "I could cheat on my diet and there'd be no repercussions whatsoever."

Zek's grin turned into a full blown sinister laugh. The reality had finally hit him. His cynicism and anger replaced by jubilation at the golden opportunity before him.

"I'm free," he began to say. "I'm free forever! Ha ha! No consequences! There are no consequences! Nothing matters!"

He jumped up onto the table, grabbing his plate of mashed potatoes.

"Turtle Boy, don't you see? Nothing matters! Is it not glorious?! Everyone! Hedonism has won at last! The can of worms is shut! Anarchy reigns! WHA HA HA!"

Grunt went to grab Zek, but the crazed pirate was as slippery as ever. He dodged the krogan's lunge and was already running down the hall, right towards Starboard Observation. Grunt got there just in time to see him call out to Samara.

"Hey! Murder Cop!" He screamed.

Samara turned from her meditation, just as Zek threw his plate of Mashed Potatoes right into her face. Her blue features now coated in fluffy white root vegetable, Zek just laughed uproarious.

"Stuff that in your Code, ya Law and Order junkie!" Zek declared. "Attica! Attica!"

Zek ran from Samara, who marched after him, her biotics at full power. He got to the elevator first, but Grunt doubted that would stop the Justicar. She had scraped the potatoes off her face, revealing a murderously determined look upon it. Grunt knew it wouldn't last. The asari would chase Zek, she would hunt him down and make him pay, but only if she caught him. There was only an hour left in this loop and once it was up, Zek would be free and clear. Samara wouldn't remember this happening and Zek would play out his next forbidden desire. Grunt looked to Hawthorne, who stood there stunned.

"Uh, was it something I said?" He asked.

Grunt groaned in anguish. This whole mission just got ten times harder. Then again, considering it was Zek, that was probably an understatement.

* * *

Sergeant Lendon was headed to the recreational area of the carrier, intent on meeting some of the guys for a poker game. Instead, when he turned the corner, he found Zek staring him down with what appeared to be some kind of launcher of some sort near him.

"Hey, Dipshit, fancy meeting you here," he observed. "Then again, you've been taking this same route for every goddamn loop so far. Why would it change now?"

"The hell are you talking about? And what the hell is that thing?" Lendon demanded to know.

"Oh nothing," Zek assured him. "Just something I pulled out of storage. We used it to practice taking shots at little the targets it slung out. Today though, it's loaded with wadded up balls from the _Serpent's_ mess hall garbage. You know, all the shit we eat that you already find disgusting."

Lendon sneered at the Jackal.

"When Haverson hears about this-"

"Oh what will he do? Kick me out of the fleet? Considering I've already done this with a paint sprayer, engine grease and whatever my men chucked up last night, I highly doubt that. Next time, I'm emptying the ship's waste tank!"

Zek pulled the switch on the launcher and stinking garbage began hitting Lendon. The Sergeant tried to run, but Zek kept after him.

"Run monkey shit, run!" He cried out. "Today is Zek's day! Everyday is Zek's day! HA HA HA!"

* * *

Kowalski ran for cover, along with the rest of his squad, as the Banshee pulled a wild turn through the hangar. It clipped one of the Pelicans and then tried to loop over. It smashed into the ceiling before scrapping across the ground, cutting across the floor as it was plow cutting through the Earth.

"The hell is wrong with that idiot!" Ellingham screamed aloud.

"I don't know!" Kowalski replied. "It's like he's gone nuts!"

Eventually the Banshee smashed into a row of Ghosts, causing them to all crash into one another. Out of the wreckage of both the land and air vehicles, Zek stumbled from the banshee's cockpit, still holding a bottle of ichor. Fires were everywhere, equipment was destroyed and vehicles were damaged beyond reasonable repair. All Zek could do was grin as he drunk it all in.

"Wooooooohooooo!" He screamed aloud over the carnage around him.

He of course hadn't killed anyone, thankfully, but Kowalski didn't understand where this had come from all of a sudden. He knew the pirate was nuts, but this was just way too far. Thankfully the Spartans arrived, Kelly and Fred, tackling him to the ground.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Kelly demanded to know.

"Learning to fly," Zek laughed. "Next time, it's going to be a Pelican!"

"There is no next time," Fred assured him. "I don't care what Chief said, you're going right to the-"

That was when the lights flickered and seconds later, Kowalski and the whole hangar began to float as gravity seemed to fail.

* * *

Zek sat in the mess hall within the _Ascendant Justice_ , stuffing his face with everything on the menu. Literally everything on the menu, he had raided the entire kitchen and was now just gorging himself. He had always wanted to sample as much human food as possible, even if it was crappy military rations. There were at least a few chocolate bars and other sugary snacks he had looted from the secret stashes of some of the soldiers and Marines. He had also raided the _Normandy's_ food stores, stealing whatever he could find that looked good. Specifically anything that had sugar in it.

Now, not only did he feel stuffed, he had a rush of energy, that made him want to eat more. The Marines gathered around in shock, as the pirate consumed as many dishes as possible.

"You're gonna have to get rid off all that one way or another buddy," Corporal Pearson spoke up. "I hope your restroom has a good toilet."

"HA! Shows what you know!" Zek laughed, shoving more cookies into his gullet. "This ain't gonna be my problem for very long. Nope, all of it has another way out."

Zek suddenly felt something twitch in his stomach. He quickly grabbed a bucket nearby, but then noticed some ODSTs heading into the hall. He suddenly had a better idea. He took a swig from his ichor and then tossed the bottle over to Pearson, who caught it nimbly.

"Hold that," he laughed as he head over to the Drop Troopers. "This is gonna be fucking hilarious! Hey, fuckwits! Wanna know what a kig-yar **see** food diet looks like?"

* * *

The ODSTs found their barracks in utter disarray. When McKay had pulled them away for a training exercise, they hadn't expected to come back and find the place totally trashed. Beds were overturned, the toilet paper from their bathrooms was practically everywhere, eggs were smashed against the walls and alongside them was graffiti of various stupid looking monkeys in ODST gear. Also, a message written in giant letters that read "Obsolete Dickhead Shitfaced Traitors!"

Private Collis looked enraged and went to collect his helmet.

"Damn vultures did this," he screamed. "That's it! We're done! I'm going right up to Holland and I'm going to demand we cut these fuckers loo-"

When he placed his helmet on, he felt something sticky in there. It also smelled bad. He took off the helmet and wretched in anger and disgust at what he found. Watching from beneath a bed, Zek stifled a laugh. He then waited for the gravity to fail any second now and for every Trooper in the room to fall up into the ceiling. Where he had stuck a bunch of wadded toilet paper of the nastiest smelling ichor (to humans, anyway) that he could find.

* * *

"I find this a very infantile use of my hacking skills, sir," Retz informed him. "Especially since we really shouldn't be using-"

"Blah, blah, blah, Retz just do it," Zek ordered. "We've been done this five times already and this hasn't stopped being funny yet so just do it."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Retz asked confused. "Five times?"

"Long story, you literally would not remember," Zek insisted. "Just transmit the code and watch the feed."

Retz finally relented and did as told. Zek chuckled in anticipation as the feed of the bridge of the _Chorka_ came on. Haverson was there, apparently briefing Holland and Whitcomb further about something, possibly the time loop situation. As he did, every screen in the Corvette turned red and anyone wearing an omni-tool had it turn on and activate a vid message. On it was a badly made sock puppet bearing Haverson's likeness while obnoxious kiddie music played in the background.

" _Hey kids! It's the Lieutenant Turdmuncher show! I'm Lieutenant Haverson and I love munching turds! I love it almost as much as being a whiney little shit pickle who lives in an ivory tower of self-righteous bullshit! But I'm a dumb naked monkey with my head way up my own ass, so really is that any shock to anyone? And now, I'm gonna eat these Unggoy turds! Ah the Unggoy, an entire species that is only slightly less useless than I am!"_

A plate of, what one would assume were unggoy droppings, was pushed over to the sock puppet who then began eating them excessively. Words then flashed across the screen declaring "I used one of your Socks for this, asshole!" at first and then switching to "Eat Shit, Elias!" after a few seconds.

Zek was rolling on the floor in hysterics at this point as he watched Haverson order every screen turned off, the system scrubbed and even threw his own omni-tool component on the floor. Retz could only shake his head.

"Why does it always come back to toilet humor with you, Zek?" He asked.

"Oh bite me, this is fun," Zek laughed.

"It won't be when he kicks us out of the fleet," Retz informed his Shipmaster.

"Yeah, too bad," Zek laughed. "This is the kind of thing you can only do once... oh wait, no it ain't! I still got more episode ideas for this! Same time next loop buddy!"

Zek got up off the floor and took off, he still had some time before the next loop. Might as well spend it where he wouldn't have to endure getting yelled at for the rest of it.

* * *

Zek had gotten used to swimming among the Chorka, the juveniles seemed to enjoy his company as well even though they only believed to was the first time. They were quite playful, bunting him and splashing their tails around him. There was also the benefit that they kept filling their water with their ichor secretions, meaning he was quite literally swimming in the stuff. Probably not the wisest thing to do when you were suffering a perpetual hangover, but who cares when everything is quite literally reset every time? And when the loop hit, everything floated up for a while, even the water, creating a few seconds of an swimming through the air in a giant water bubble. Now that was relaxing and made the inevitable restart a bit more bearable.

* * *

Zek stood in the _Serpent's_ hangar, holding the human sniper rifle by its barrel. On the floor near his feet were a bunch of plasma grenades. Retz was close by, working on activating each one in turn as he was asked. Zek gauged the distance outside the plasma shield.

"So, there's no drag in space, right?" He asked Retz. "Meaning this could be a real long drive."

"Sir, is the best use of your time?" Retz asked

"I am immersing myself in human culture and this is one of their sports," Zek declared. "I'm just making it more exciting for me personally. Now then..."

Retz just sighed and activated one of the grenades. Zek prepared the butt of the sniper rifle and swung away.

"Five!" He declared.

The grenade went flying out the hangar and into the void of space.

"I don't think that's what you shout when-"

"Sssh, Retz," Zek said, putting up a finger. "This is the best part."

Moments later, a tiny blue explosion could be seen in the black.

"How far was that?" Zek shouted up to Varvok.

The batarian was situated at console on the upper platform above. It was connected to the _Serpent's_ long range sensors, designed to detect any anomalies nearby. Namely, in this case, small explosions.

"About seven hundred meters," Varvok grumbled.

"Sweet! Lets got for eight hundred!" Zek declared.

"How long are we going to do this?" Varvok asked.

"I'm trying to improve my slice!" Zek insisted. "It takes time to get really good at cutting off limbs and shit! This helps with that!"

"Zek, I'm not sure that word, in reference to this game, is what you think it means," Retz warned.

"Whatever, set up another nade," Zek ordered.

* * *

Haverson sat across from Zek grimacing as he did while the kig-yar just beamed rather smugly. They had just finished a meeting. One the Jackal had prompted. He had called it an airing of grievances and given what Halsey had explained to him about the situation concerning the loop, the ONI agent understood why they were even having this talk in the first. As Zek pointed out, none of it mattered, but it helped that he could get this off his chest all the same.

"So you lied about why you wanted to go to that plasma weapon manufacturing plant," Haverson began to list off. "You have created a synthetic sugar compound to practice making real sugar with as a result of that raid. There is currently a whole wing in the bowels of your ship dedicated to using sugar as a drug. You are merely waiting to find some means to produce real sugar to go into full production. And when you do, you are essentially going to run a drug ring from within this fleet and corner the market on sugar as a new narcotic entirely."

"Yep," Zek said, grinning rather broadly.

"And the only reason you're telling me this is because you know the time loop will wipe away any memory of this meeting. You just want the satisfaction in seeing how badly you've tricked me and everyone for yourself without the consequences for revealing it all."

"There an echo in here?" Zek asked, chuckling as he did. "Oh and the Chorka are a part of that. I figure if I can snag a part of the bootleg ichor market, I might as well cross promote my product. Basically, I'll be producing Alcoholic Ichor Soda. Competing with Snarlbeak's virtual monopoly on the stuff will be a breeze after that."

Haverson looked annoyed, even enraged, but he maintained his cool. Barely though, Zek could still see his eye twitching.

"Well, I'll admit, I never suspected a thing," Haverson confessed. "Honestly, I felt you would've done worse to me than wound my pride when the prospect of consequences was removed from the table."

Zek just laughed at that.

"Oh believe me, I have," Zek assured him. "A lot of them were a ton of fun. Sneaking laxatives into your food or pissing in your laundry got a bit mundane though. I decided it was a lot more fun to take satisfaction in telling you off, face to face. We've already gone through this meeting a few times, actually, I spent most of it insulting you, telling you my real thoughts, I smashed up your office a little, that sort of thing."

Haverson just sighed, reaching towards one of the drawers.

"Oh getting out your scotch again? Only way you can handle knowing how powerless you are in the face of time?" Zek asked laughing.

"No," Haverson confessed, pouring out a shot for himself. "I'm just... a bit disappointed."

Zek was taken aback, that was new. He never really said anything before. Perhaps the way the conversation had gone had altered things a bit.

"I'm just surprised that juvenile pranks and other stupid mindless activities would be all you'd decide to do in a world where you have infinite retries," Haverson claimed. "You seem to delight in petty revenge on people who have slighted you or just doing whatever you want because you can. You could be trying to fix something, rather than tearing it down."

"Pft, fix what?" Zek laughed. "Anything I change is gonna get re-broken anyway."

"True, but if I was in your position, I'd be considering my regrets," Haverson informed him. "The mistakes I made, the choices I picked. Then, I'd be trying to see if I could do anything to change them, if I could change them."

Zek sat their speechless, his hand strangely going straight to his black eye. Almost by reflex in fact. It was like, he already knew what Haverson was getting at.

"You could be doing so much with the time you've been given," the ONI agent continued. "You have all the time you'll ever need for anything. Shame you're still wasting it, Zek. Real shame."

Zek's smug smile evaporated into a grimace of self-loathing. Damn this human. Damn him and his stupid insight. As the lights flickered and everything began to float, Zek knew what he'd be spending the next loop doing and every loop after that.

* * *

When Taq walked onto the _Serpent's_ bridge, she suspected to find Zek there with some trivial matter concerning their current crisis. Grunt said he was involved, but the idiot never showed up for the medical briefing in the _Normandy_. He was tearing her away from her work and wasting her time and she intended to just leave as soon as she told him just that.

She had not expected to find a damn rock concert in full swing performing on said bridge. Nor did she expect so many people here, including humans. The kig-yar musicians on the stage, really just an elevated platform taking up the front of the room, were rocking out to a version of some Earth metal band. Everyone was drinking a ton of ichor, surfing the crowd, she believed she saw two humans making out. That was probably not standard regulation. Eventually, Zek made his presence known.

"Taq! You came! Awesome! I was getting worried for a second!"

Taq groaned at him. She almost hated to ask the obvious, but she didn't seem have any other options.

"What is all this?" She questioned, her grimace ever apparent across her beak.

"Oh just a little get together and all," Zek insisted. "I decided to be a more warm and open welcoming fellow member of the fleet. I invited all the servicemen to come aboard the ship for a party! Why not? We're all friends right? Drink some Ichor, rock out, that sort of thing. I got it all sorted quickly, like last minute, but look at the turn out."

"Uh huh, yeah, whatever," Taq glowered. "Bye."

Taq turned to leave, but Zek was quick to cut her off.

"Oh come on, you don't really want to go back to work do you?" He asked pleadingly. "I mean, look at all this? You really wanna miss out on all the fun?"

"Anything involving you is not fun," Taq informed him. "And never will be."

She then gently grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to the side. She then walked out, just as quickly as she had come in. Zek sighed as the doors closed. Another failure. Rock concert was out. As had movie night been. He really thought she'd have liked those ancient treasure hunt movies, but she stayed about just as long. He was going about this wrong. He had to impress her somehow, show her that he had really changed.

* * *

Taq was working in the lab with Halsey when music started playing outside.

"Oh please," Taq groaned. "Don't be what I think it is."

She opened the door to find Zek leading a crooning chorus of pirates as he played an old kig-yar mating song over his omni-tool. He was even playing a flute to go along with the tune. Taq just glared at him all the while, her disdain evident. Eventually she grabbed the flute and smashed it into the floor.

"You know it took me four consecutive loops to learn that and get kinda good at it," he declared. "A whole ton of tutorials. Non-stop. There was effort put into this. What do you want? A human piano? Would that be good?"

"How about I just explain what you're doing wrong in the most simple of matters?" Taq asked, before gesturing to the entire sordid scene. "THIS is NOT charming. You are not charming. You are an idiot who needs to learn when to quit."

"I don't have to quit!" Zek declared adamantly. "Because I got literally all the time in the world to get this right! And you won't remember the fuck ups so eventually something will fucking stick! Even if the Turtle keeps informing you guys of the loop."

"Zek, the last thing you ever did right by me was a long time ago," Taq insisted. "A very long time ago."

"What about saving you on the Hollow?" Zek reminded her incredulously. "Getting you this gig?"

"You don't get points for business related matters when I'm doing most of the work to keep them invested in my expertise!" Taq declared, shoving her talon into his chest. "And the Hollow was mostly your fault because you led them to me! So whatever you think is going to work, stop it! Just stop it! Focus on fixing this damn loop and leave me alone!"

Taq shut the door as she entered the lab again. Zek waved his hand to call the Chorus of pirates off, this was a bust. He needed a better angle. His thoughts went back to what she had said about the last thing he did right by her. It only took a few moments for him to realize the truth.

"Duh, idiot! Of course!"

* * *

When Taq walked onto the _Serpent's_ bridge, she suspected to find Zek there with some trivial matter concerning their current crisis. Grunt said he was involved, but the idiot never showed up for the medical briefing in the _Normandy_. He was tearing her away from her work and wasting her time and she intended to just leave as soon as she told him just that.

When she got there though, she found it cleared completely. Not a soul in sight. Instead were a series of candles everywhere, lighting up the darkened space. Pictures of her and Zek were everywhere, all from back when they were partners. There were even some credit chips on the ground, a cheesy romantic kig-yar gesture found in holo-novels of a less than family-friendly nature. Her eyes were drawn to one picture in particular, her and Zek, much younger of course. Standing in front of an unearthed Forerunner temple. The looted contents strewn behind them. Zek had his foot on a dead Forerunner machine, a sentinel left behind to guard the place. Taq was grinning like an school girl, looking happier than she had honestly ever imagined being at that time.

"Some adventure that was, huh?"

Taq turned as saw Zek, not wearing his usual tattered and scratched armor with the long list of kills etched into it. He was actually wearing something pristine, semi-clean looking, with golden traces on blue leather straps. It reminded Taq of something from her studies.

"Is... is that a replica of what the old pirate lords used to wear?" She asked. "Back in the Golden Age?"

"Yep," Zek assured her. "Made it myself a while ago, had it in storage. Decided to pull it out now."

"Why?" Taq asked skeptically.

Zek walked over to the picture she had been looking at.

"You know, I remember that day," he insisted. "Hot, dusty as hell, sand in every crack. But it was the most fun I ever had, honestly. I learned so much about history that day. Stuff I didn't know about. Stuff that I think made me appreciate what I was taking from people, not just why."

"Really?" Taq asked, still sounding unconvinced.

"Absolutely," Zek insisted.

He pressed a button on his omni-tool and activated some music. An incredibly beautiful song, one only partially sung by kig-yar. The tune was in harmony with that of the Chorka's love calls, intertwined with one another in a hypnotic transitory experience. Taq remembered this song herself.

"Is... is that...?"

"Yep, the same song we danced to that night on the bridge," Zek assured her.

He reached out his hand and, without even realizing it, Taq took it. He pulled her into an embrace and they both began to dance with one another. Taq couldn't explain why, but she went along with it, let the music move her. Memories flooded back in, her mind recalling this very same dance, from so long ago. Zek had been younger, just as stupid, but she was just as so on both accounts and so easily swept away. He just seemed to take her in, without her even suspecting it, without her even knowing she wanted it. There was only one thing that was surprisingly different.

"You... you're better at this," she recognized.

"Yeah, well, it's like shooting a gun really," Zek insisted. "You never really forget."

She kept moving with him, accepting his closeness, his touch. Something gnawed at her the whole while though, something didn't feel right. Yet part of her was still very much taken in. It was so strange, her mind filled with nostalgia for the past, but also with a sense that this was wrong. With every foot and turn and dip and sway, her thoughts began to converge.

"You're really good at this," she said, her skepticism growing.

"I've had a lot of time to practice is all," Zek assured, pulling her close.

He went to nuzzle her beak. Instead, he found himself pushed away. The song stopped and the pirate captain looked shocked. Taq's complacent expression was replaced with rage, her glare burning into him with a fury she had never possessed before.

"How many times have we done this?" She demanded to know.

"Ugh fuck," Zek groaned, pressing a talon to his forehead. "Mental note, do not say or reference 'time' next round."

"Asshole, how many?!"

"Twenty! Okay! At least that many!" Zek insisted. "You have no idea how hard it is to get everything right, to remember the song, to make sure you remember where not to step..."

Taq roared in anger, stomping off towards the port side of the bridge.

"I can't believe you!"

"What? That I show effort for once?" Zek asked, rather incensed. "That I actually go out of my way to try and be what you want? That I do my damndest to make this perfect and right and everything?"

"It's fake, Zek!" Taq screeched. "It's all FAKE! You manufactured this whole damn scenario over and over again! Not based on anything real, but by how much you can forcibly recall from memory! You think just because you can guess where not to step on my foot or you get the song right finally that it all suddenly makes it okay? That it's suddenly back when we were at the start of things and nothing ever happened? This is a fucking fantasy! A stupid one!"

"It's not stupid and it's not fake!" Zek declared. "None of this is fake! Why would going through all this work make you even think for a second it's fake! I'm doing everything I can to make you realize I'm not the same bird who left you alone in that bed!"

"So what? You're the suave pirate who sweeps me off my feet?" Taq asked snarling. "As if that was any more real?"

Zek grabbed at his quills and pulled at them in frustration. He growled as he approached her, suddenly taking her hand.

"You want real? Fine!" He said, placing the hand on his heart. "This is real! I've regretted ditching you for so long! It was stupid and dumb and I hated myself for it! I thought it would be better, that ultimately it didn't matter and I was wrong! Because it did matter! Don't you understand? I am in frickin love with you! I have been since we met! But I was scared and cocky and I left because I was an idiot! There! I'm sorry! I'm sorry and I just want to fix this!"

Taq looked at him long, hard and, worst of all, unfeeling. She then tore her hand away.

"You. Can't." She said, as clear and direct as possible. "You don't get to just declare you love me and say you're sorry and just make it all return to normal. You're sorry? Fine. I don't forgive you."

"But... I'm sor-"

"No!" Taq snapped back. "Sorry is not an instant eraser for the shitty things you've done. You don't get to have an apology accepted just because you demand it. You don't get to be absolved because you really want to. That's not up to you!"

"Why not?" Zek pleaded. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! What's it going to take for you to forgive me and just pick off where we started?"

Taq pointed accusingly at him.

"That! That right there is why you don't get it!" She shouted at him. "You don't really want absolution. You just want everything to go back to that night like it never happened. Like I'm supposed to forget. Well guess what? This stupid time loop isn't happening on that night, it's happening now! And it's FAR too late for a do over!"

Zek turned desperate, dropping to his knees and looking up at her.

"This is because of my black eye, ain't it?" He asked. "It's all about that, why you punched me. Look, I'm sure I did something stupid to deserve it. Just tell me what it is so I can at least make _that_ right. Please!"

"Oh you wanna know, huh?" Taq asked sardonically. "Okay, fine. You drunk yourself off your ass, came into my room and just let your true self play out for all to see."

Zek looked horrified,suddenly concerned about the truth.

"Oh no," he thought. "I didn't-"

"No," Taq assured him. "You did worse. I could've kicked your ass if you tried that shit. Instead, you played this blubbering facade you have on right now and when I told you off, you did the same to me. Every unggoy shit insult you could think off. And you know how you ended it? When I told you to fuck off because of your drunken idiocy, you blurted out how at least you could hold your ichor better than my mom ever did! Because that was, in your words, the only reason she ever even had me!"

Zek's face went white. He had said that? Had he really said that? How could he? Why would he? Had it gotten that bad? Disgusted with himself, angered by his own stupid beak, he tried to plead with her.

"Taq I... I didn't... you know I-"

"When you drink, you're more honest than any kig-yar out there," she responded. "That's why I know you're not genuine, Zek. How I know you're lying right now when you claim you want to be forgiven. You haven't changed. You can't."

"If... if I could take it back I would," Zek insisted desperately. "I swear, you're not an accident, Taq. You're... you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Well, I guess it's too bad our little experiment didn't get you a few extra hours more then," Taq replied. "But that's life, Zek. Sometimes you only ever have one shot to get it right."

Taq left the bridge, leaving Zek broken and defeated on the floor. He didn't call out for her to stay. He couldn't. She was right. He had fucked it all up. As he had known all along, he had blown his chance at happiness long ago for no good reason. There was no reset on this. Never would be. He sat there in the dark, thinking about all of this, waiting for the light to come. He welcomed it when the gravity failed and colors consumed him once more.

* * *

A fist slammed into his eye and Zek fell to the floor with a terrible thud.

"Trust me," Taq snarled. "You deserved that."

She stomped away without another word. By the time she was gone though, Zek had found the courage to reply.

"Yeah," he relented. "I guess I do."

* * *

Grunt had long accepted by now that Zek was not coming on their searches anymore. He was far too involved in his general stupidity and self-indulgence. It was up to him and him alone to save the fleet. Just like Garr the Krogan Battlemaster would do. Because despite what Zek claimed Garr was NOT a villain and that's what he'd do.

He kept going after crystals, doing what he could. He took a break now and then to practice on the shooting course, always coming close to beating Travers but never quite getting it. Sometimes he just tried to eat something and get his mind off everything. As much as he hated to admit it, Zek was somewhat right about one thing. This was tedious as hell.

Grunt tried to switch it up now and then, but it wasn't easy. When every day lasted six hours and every single second of those six hours was the same, it was hard to find satisfaction in anything. You had to keep repeating a routine of sorts, just to keep things on track. Worse yet, Grunt wasn't the best at remembering everything, so once and a while he forgot something he was supposed to do to keep things on track. He had to keep memorizing the frequency code every now and again to regain the tracker for example. Although he had gotten good at avoiding that damn orange drink spill. Mainly by asking EDI to call Gardner and warn him about it so he could mop it up.

There was still that annoying song though. No matter how many time he smashed the intercom, he could never escape it. The same wake up call every time. The same music on BBR, every time. The same conversations, every time. Every six hours he had to repeat something and go through the same damn crap again and again. That was why, ultimately, contrary to what Hawthorne claimed, there was no real positive to this. Not for him.

Krogan were judged by the strength of their enemies, how much blood they were drenched in after combat. This loop was not that kind of enemy. It wasn't strong or even smarter than him. It was just annoying and stupid. There was no glory in this endless cycle of running around like an idiot and trying to memorize sciences he didn't understand. If this did not end, not only would his krant be trapped here forever, but they would never be able to face their true enemies and defeat them.

This had to stop. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like any end was in sight. He went to Cortana and Tali for a progress report while Halsey and Taq were busy with other tasks. He needed to know how well he was doing on his own and if he was any closer to being done. They asked him to try and recall how much the crystal had been broken apart before he and Zek began collecting shards. He did his best to do so, beating his own skull plate to force his mind to think already. Eventually he had a good idea and drew his best approximation onto the holographic representation of what the crystal actually looked like when seen through the proper frequency. The outline did not look promising, from the looks of it, the crystal had been only slightly repaired.

Grunt presumed it had to be a mistake. Given that he was the one who made the outline, it was decided they needed another more scientific method of determining the truth. So Cortana brought in EDI and Legion to help them with some calculations and readings. What they found they discovered only confirmed their worst fears.

"You mean it's not working?!" Grunt bellowed.

"Correction, process is working," Legion assured him. "Simply not fast enough."

"A deeper chronological reading of the crystal has given us a better idea of what you're up against," Cortana clarified. "We can say with certainly that your estimate of the extent of the original damage was more or less accurate. The shards are returning, they remain in the crystal after collected. Regardless of the reset, they aren't just flying off again. You are making progress, but it's just not enough."

"How can you be sure?" Grunt asked.

"Elements of the crystal show different signs of long term exposure to outside elements," Legion answered. "The length of time they have spent in between the folds of space, separated from the crystal proper, has been measured to a degree of certainty. It is evident you have been conducting this task for some time."

Grunt just snorted in agreement, although he felt it was something of an understatement in any case. "For some time" was hardly how'd he describe this ordeal.

"So I'm barely making a dent," Grunt growled. "How long is it going to take me to get the whole crystal fixed?"

"We can estimate you have repaired ten percent of the initial damage," EDI claimed. "However, we still cannot say for certain how many shards are left for you to retrieve. The devastation of the crystal in the original explosion evidently exceeds our original projections. It could be years at this rate, maybe longer."

"You must seek another more practical means of repair in order to complete your task," Legion stated. "It is imperative if wish to resolve the paradox in any efficient manner."

Great, so he had been wasting time from the start. Now, it was almost like he had returned to square one. Damn it all. He couldn't think of many options, he needed help on this. Which meant, he needed the only other person in the fleet who could help him.

"I need to tell Zek," he grimaced. "Ugh, he's probably doing some stupid and insane right now because consequences no longer exist. Have there been any disturbances in the fleet recently?"

"Actually, no," Tali informed him. "From what I've heard, no one has seen Zek all day. Taq was the last person who did and she won't talk about it beyond that."

Because she had punched him in the eye for something dumb he did before the loop happened. Grunt knew that, but no one else could because they hadn't seen him all day. Where the hell could he be? More importantly, what was he even doing?

* * *

Grunt eventually found the pirate leader in the recreational room aboard the _Serpent_. The place was covered in discarded wrappers and ichor bottles and various other accumulated junk food bits. Zek was sitting in his comfy chair, watching something on the holoscreen. It appeared to be an animated feature about some human woman in short-shorts and a tank top, using dual weapons to blow her way through a bowling alley or whatever. None of this was at all surprising to Grunt, it was Zek himself though who was.

He was sitting in his chair, staring blankly at the screen, not seemingly enjoying the violence like he usually did with these vids. He was stuffing his face passively every few seconds, his expression monotone and depressed. He looked broken, defeated, worse than he had when he had just be bored and angry. In the moment though, Grunt didn't care. He just stomped up in front of him, blocking his view.

"Oh. Hey Turtle," Zek responded rather plainly. "Finally tracked me down, huh?"

"We need to talk," Grunt told him. "It's about the mission. We need a new strategy."

But the kig-yar didn't seem to care, he just looked past the hulking krogan, his gaze falling onto the screen again.

"You know who that is?" He asked, pointing to the screen as the female lead in the vid was shooting up some more bad guys. "Her name is Revy, sometimes people just call her 'Two Hands' cause she goes all weapons akimbo on everyone with everything. She likes the violence, she's kind of a pirate, enjoys kicking ass and fucking people up, takes no shit from no one and best of all... doesn't care. Doesn't care about anything. Because fuck everything, you know? Just fuck everything. All that matters is what you wanna do and how you wanna do it. She's perfect."

Zek fell back into his chair and sighed.

"Why couldn't I fall in love with someone like her?" He asked in a pathetically depressing tone of melancholy. "Why, Turtle? Why'd I have to go for someone smarter than me who gives a shit? Who is everything I'm not? Who's better than me in every way? Why'd I go so outside my comfort zone? Why'd my heart pick the one female I should've known I'd be shit to? I'm a pirate, I should've just found another pirate to love. It would've been better for everyone. I guess my heart is as stupid as I am."

Grunt had no time for this pity party. Growling under his breath, he grabbed Zek's beak and made the idiot look at him.

"Stop wallowing," he demanded. "I'm not here for this nonsense. First you hate this looping, then you love it, now you hate it again. I don't care. This needs to end!"

Zek just laughed, but manically, like he was close to weeping.

"End? This is never ending, Turtle," he said. "It's over. We're trapped here. This is life. I'm gonna sit here for eternity, more or less, watching everything in Joker's media playlist. That's all I can do. All any of us can do. Accept it. We're done. Finished."

"No, we're not," Grunt insisted. "We can fix this, but we need a better plan. The search isn't working, it will take us years from our perspective. The AIs all confirmed it. We have to find another way."

"Better idea, grab a seat, watch the holo and just accept what I have," Zek stated. "This is life now. Horrible, never-ending, forever. Don't wallow you say? All we can do is wallow."

Grunt grumbled at the statement in frustration using the remote nearby to turn off the holoscreen and tossing it away. Zek got up, looking initially like he was about to fight the krogan. Instead, he just walked past him and scrounged around for the remote in the garbage.

"You just don't get it, do you?" He said, speaking in a deadpan tone as he did. "We just got to accept that we can't change this. It can't be fixed. Nothing can."

"Whatever happened to how great it was that consequences were dead?" Grunt asked. "What is wrong with you now?"

"There are still consequences, Turtle," Zek declared rather blankly. "The ones outside of our control. Outside of the loop. They're just not the ones we wanted, they're already cemented. It's like what they say about the shards in us. There, but not there."

Finally finding the remote, Zek turned on the holoscreen again, turning back to stare at Grunt grimly.

"Inside the loop, nothing is real, it's all a giant fantasy," he continued, his voice sullen and morose. "All one everlasting purgatory. A fake paradise where nothing hurts you, but nothing can ever bring you joy either. Nothing is new, so nothing can be gained. The present is locked in place and the past remains forever out of reach. Without consequences, there is nothing to be gained or lost, just repeated. There's no danger, no excitement, no real reward, just endless, unceasing punishment as we're reminded of every mistake we've made and our inability to change anything!"

Zek returned to his seat, plopping down with the clear intent to let his eyes glaze over.

"We've lost everything and gained nothing," he said with a sense of finality. "This is everything we will ever know. From now until forever. No Astral Cutlass. No climbing the criminal ladder. Never truly redeeming myself to the woman I love. Just one giant constant, forever."

"Then help me end it," Grunt ordered. "Break this loop and we can all be free."

"That's a nice sentiment," Zek sighed. "But it's not happening. Before, I could at least take comfort in the simple fact that at the very least there was a bright side. Now, there isn't. It's hopeless turtle. Absolutely hopeless. We're done."

Grunt grabbed Zek by the collar and pulled him up out of the chair.

"I am not quitting because you've decided your life is terrible or that everything is pointless," the krogan bellowed. "I refuse to do that! Not while my krant remains trapped here!"

"Don't you get it, turtle boy!" Zek screeched. "Neither of us can do this! We're the only people who have any shot at it! Everyone who is smarter and more qualified can't do shit! We got stuck with a job that is beyond us! Even working together, we are fucked! I keep saying it, so why doesn't it fucking stick? Are you just that fucking dense?! The game is over, Turtle Boy! We lost!"

"Stop calling me a turtle!" Grunt demanded. "I am krogan! And I am sick of your disrespect for me and this mission!"

"Oh you don't like being called a slow, lethargic, dumb looking reptile?" Zek mocked derisively. "Well too bad! Cause it's what you fucking are! Turtle Boy! Turtle Boy! Turtle Boy!"

Grunt threw the Jackal back into his chair, causing it to flip over. Zek stood up after struggling amongst his own feet and the volume of garbage surrounding him.

"Fuck it! There's only one way out of this!"

Zek pulled a plasma grenade from his belt and armed it. Grunt moved to stop him, to try and wrench the grenade from his hand. The next thing he knew there was an explosion.

* * *

 **Wake me up before you go go,**

 **Don't leave hanging on like a yo-yo!**

Grunt bolted awake, feeling his entire face. Nothing was burnt, he was intact, he felt no pain. It was all fixed again. But for once in a long time, he was not angry at the song anymore. His reawakening had a new target in mind.

* * *

Grunt marched to the _Serpent's_ recreational room immediately. He found Zek there, looking more amazed than depressed currently. Also there was less food because it was earlier in the day. So that was good. However, upon seeing Grunt, Zek was surprisingly unafraid, even with the krogan bearing down on him.

"Huh, so we're essentially immortal now," Zek observed. "Neat. I suppose that should make things interesting for a few more loops. Maybe we'll try the airlock next."

"I should break you in two, pirate," Grunt growled at him, holding up his fist to the bird's face. "I really should... but it would be pointless and get me nowhere. Get us nowhere."

"I don't really care what you do anymore, Grunt," Zek sighed, his defeated tone once again returned..

Grunt was surprised, he hadn't called him Turtle Boy. Sensing his confusion, the kig-yar answered.

"Don't read too much into that, I just don't see the point anymore," he sighed. "I mean, if I piss you off enough to pound me into a fine paste it will be undone in a few hours. Worse, I won't get to watch how it all unfolds. So really, what's there to gain? Like you said, pointless."

"It doesn't have to be," Grunt insisted. "Look, I get it, we're not qualified for this at all. We don't fix things, that's Tali's job. I understand this pisses you off and you have a million other things you'd rather be doing."

"Instead of sitting here being worthless? Yeah," Zek admitted, "I'd love to be doing those things, but it's not happening. I'm sorry, Grunt, but I can't do this. I can't help you."

"What about Retz? And Varvok? Your crew? Taq?" Grunt asked. "They're trapped here too. Blissfully unaware of what's going on unless we tell them. Do you want them to live out their lives like that? Trapped forever like they are?"

For once, Zek's expression changed slightly. His thoughtful expression eventually eliciting a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," he relented at last. "They all deserve a chance to live out whatever destiny they want. This purgatory chains them even more than me."

He looked back up at Grunt, his self-hatred diminished, replaced with a look abject resignation.

"But what can I do, Grunt? I told you, this isn't my thing," he insisted. "I want to help them, really, I do. I don't want them living here in this loop anymore than myself. But it will take forever to solve the problem. If the AIs can't figure this out in the six hours they have with their hyper advanced brains, what chance do we got?"

Grunt wasn't much for speeches, but being with Shepard for so long had taught him when one was needed. He didn't know if it would work, but Zek needed some kind of hope, some kind of chance in hell, if he was ever going to get out of that chair and help him.

"When the krogan went to war against the Rachni, the galaxy felt as if there was no hope," Grunt declared. "That their civilizations would crumble under their swarms, with hives erected in the place of their cities. We proved that an enemy that seemed unstoppable could be beaten. If my people could do that to an entire race of bugs, then you and I can defeat this loop together."

Zek stared up, looking rather unimpressed. Grunt looked crestfallen. Just as he thought, speeches weren't his thing.

"Your first thought on how to beat this thing was to go to the ancient war your people fought against bugs?" The Jackal asked. "Really?"

"Well, it's a... it's a good story," Grunt tried to argue.

"This isn't something you can just shoot and punch enough and hope it goes away," Zek informed him. "It's not something you can trick or talk down or outwit. It's a freaky time-space thing! This isn't our field, Grunt! What the hell can we possibly do to reverse it?"

Suddenly, a light went off in Grunt's head.

"Say that again?" He asked.

"What? About the time-space thingy?" Zek asked, a bit confused.

"No after that," Grunt demanded.

"Not our field?" Zek asked again.

"Reverse it, you said reverse it," Grunt insisted, elation in his voice. "You're right, this isn't our field, we're not good at fixing things, but we can break them! What better way to break a loop then to force it to go backwards?"

Zek was now completely lost.

"I... I don't follow you," he said. "Where's this going?"

"We gotta talk to the others," Grunt insisted. "I have an idea! We can end this, Zek! All of it! Come on!"

* * *

He grabbed the kig-yar hand and forced him to follow out the door. Zek couldn't even be bothered to resist, he just tried to keep up with the giant lizard. Grunt, however, was ecstatic. He had found a semblance of hope in all of this, way to win! Exactly the thing he was bred to do. Find victory through defeat.

Tali sat astonished in the _Normandy's_ med bay alongside Halsey and Taq. She couldn't believe what Grunt was suggesting. More insane was how much sense it almost made.

"You want us to do the experiment... in reverse?" The quarian asked, unsure of what she was even saying.

"It came to me, it was so obvious I should've seen it," Grunt declared. "This crystal wants to reform right? That's why the shards come back to it when we get near. All we have to do is find a way to reverse the explosion and they'd all come rushing back!"

"How the hell would you reverse an explosion?" Taq asked. "That makes no sense."

"In normal circumstances, yes," Halsey agreed. "But this is not normal circumstances. The crystal itself controls time to a degree. It is theoretically possible that this can be used to our benefit actually. We just need to figure out how."

Tali brought up the holographic image of the crystal, depicting it in its damaged state, including what had been restored so far.

"Well, according to Grunt's information we can determine the unique energy signatures of the shards returned already," the quarian began to theorize. "If we use the Amplifier with the Crystal in congress with our conduit device, but this time running the processes in reverse... well, maybe the crystal will be able to lock onto the shards still out there."

"Yes," Halsey reasoned. "The crystal reverses gravity for a time according to Zek and Grunt. It has a degree of control over it. So if we simply altered the energy output, the shards would be drawn in like a black hole. Back to their original origin point."

"We'd reverse time for the Crystal," Taq continued. "The explosion never happens to it, so there's no uncertainty principle or paradox. The origin point of the loop never occurs!"

"Breaking the cycle!" Tali concluded. "Grunt, this could work!"

The krogan slammed his fists together and laughed.

"Yes!" He said jubilantly, turning to Zek. "You hear that? We can beat this thing!"

"Hold loosening the sails, big guy," Zek cautioned. "There's a catch to all this complicated science I bet."

"I'm afraid so," Halsey confessed. "Both of your shards, the ones inside you, contain the first broken pieces from the original explosion. We need to study them in order to properly determine what we need to do. Once we run their energy signatures through the crystals and the recovered shards, we'll know what calculations and procedures we need to alter in order to properly reverse the crystal's polarity, so to speak."

Grunt looked at her perplexed. Thankfully Tali explained it plainly in the next second.

"We need your shards to help us run simulations," she stated. "It's the only way we'll know how to reverse the explosion properly."

"What happens if you screw it up?" Zek asked.

"We possibly end up further back in time or thrown into the far future or we end up trapped in the folds between slipspace and regular space," Halsey informed him. "Really those are the best case scenarios. Worst thing we do is utterly annihilate the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe."

Zek and Grunt looked at each other, rather shaken.

"That uh... that sounds bad," Zek noted. "That's bad, right?"

"Extremely," Taq assured him rather bluntly.

"So we need to get this right because we probably only have one shot," Grunt confirmed. "Alright, only one thing to do then."

Zek looked at Grunt, utterly horrified.

"Oh fuck, you don't mean..."

"To save the fleet and escape this loop, it's the only way," Grunt declared, clenching his fist. "We need to stay here for as many loops as possible. So we can watch while they do their tests and work out what number stuff they need to crunch. When a loop happens, we relay what we learned to them to get them back on track."

Which ultimately could only be accomplished one way, as Grunt eloquently concluded.

"In other words... we need to learn math and science."

"Nooooooo!" Zek cried out to the heavens, dropping to his knees.

"Yes!" Tali declared in an equally opposite, joyous fashion. "I'll get all my notes and call Legion in!"

While Tali rushed out of the med bay, giddy with anticipation, Halsey opened up her omni-tool.

"Chief, bring Cortana back down here," she asked. "We have a class to conduct and we've already an hour late in starting it."

"The cure is worse than the disease," Zek cried openly. "Why does the universe hate me? Did I run over its pet or something?"

* * *

Grunt had not been looking forward to basically learning science or going through a ton of annoying calculations. In the end though, he figured if he could memorize a dumb frequency code, he could make this work. Surprisingly it didn't take too long to grasp what a bunch of the stuff the little egghead group was saying. It helped that Tali seemed eternally elated every time concerning the prospect of Grunt actually wanting to learn science. Zek almost fell asleep every time, but Grunt kept him awake and learning. Eventually, he managed to keep his eyes open for the whole "class" for lack of a better term.

Every loop they shared what they had learned about the science as to what they were doing and their teachers picked up where they left off. Taq's style was probably the most abrasive, Halsey's was the most professional and Tali was insistent on trying to make it fun and palatable for the both of them. So, all in all, they had a wide array of teaching methods which to reconcile with one another.

With Cortana and Legion's help, Grunt and Zek assisted best they could in formulating the various calculations to improve the simulation process. Changing variable here, a fraction there, going through the various motions until it looked like they maybe had something. They then tested the simulation through the computer and, depending on the success rate predicted, went from there.

Grunt found himself actually enjoying the science lessons more and more. Maybe not to the degree it replaced his desire to simply smash things, but it was actually cooler than he thought it was. At first it all seemed a bit crazy and unpredictable, but then he realized how it all worked. Tali helped explain it a little, anti-matter and matter, quantum stuff, wormholes, a whole host of crazy things that could potentially harm you or mess you up. It was like learning about an enemy and discerning a way to combat or conquer it. A different kind of battle, one fought in the mind as well as the field.

It was a trying process, but eventually, after several loops, they finally had something. The simulation predicted a fairly good success rate, ninety-nine percent. Halsey said there was never such a thing as one hundred percent certainty in this kind of science. There were too many variables for that. At last, they had a plan.

"It would seem the answer is clear," Halsey concurred. "All you two have to do is be in close proximity to the energy output as we run through the procedure. The crystal's time polarity will shift at the moment the loop is supposed to occur. Then we run a counter-current that reverses the original experiment's effects and forces the Crystal to resolve the paradox."

"In layman's terms, we cause the time loop origin point to rewind itself so it never happened," Tali declared.

"Yeah! Break stuff to fix it!" Grunt shouted. "Told you, pirate!"

"Whatever," Zek groaned. "So long as school is out. What do you need us to do?"

"Just stay close to conduit and those relics," Taq insisted. "The rest should take care of itself."

* * *

It had come down to this at last. After who knew how many loops, Zek and Grunt were back in the cargo bay. Now a part of the experiment they had accidentally stumbled into. Shepard and the Master Chief were there to monitor the situation and make sure it went according to plan.

"You ready for this, Grunt?" Shepard asked.

"Absolutely! We have an enemy to defeat," he declared. "With science this time!"

Tali seemed to beam at that.

"Just stay close to the conduit," she reiterated. "We're getting close to the reset mark."

Zek and Grunt stood on either side of the conduit, where the two relics were currently in place. Grunt showed no fear, although he could smell apprehension in Zek. Not so much because he was standing next to a bunch of ancient artifacts of immense power. More so because, well, everything that he remembered could go wrong if it went sideways.

"Activating reverse procedures... now!" Halsey called out, flipping a switch.

The power began to flow through the relics, only with an opposite energy charge this time. The Amplifier resonated with power as the Crystal seemed to fluctuate. Everything appeared to be going okay from the start. Tali spoke up as things progressed.

"Any sensation, Grunt?" She asked. "You should be feeling something where the shards are."

"Uh, a slight tingle I think," Grunt replied, holding his shoulder.

He looked to see Zek poking at his forehead as well.

"That's good," Taq said. "The Crystal is locking on. Once the Amplifier kicks in, it should read our energy process as opposite of our intended original experiment."

"Let's just hope it-"

Shepard was cut off when the lights began fluctuate, turning on and off. The floor shook next.

"Careful," Tali warned. "The simulation predicted the possibility of some alterations."

"What kind?" Chief asked curiously.

At that moment, Grunt felt himself suddenly pulled away from conduit. He ended up near the ceiling. for a brief second he floated before he began to plummet. Then he ended crashing into the wall. Not the floor, the wall. Which was weird for various reasons at this moment.

"What the-"

Energy spikes started to burst all around the room, little pockets of green, yellow, blue and red arcs of electricity, jutting from nowhere, appearing and vanishing at random. The whole cargo bay rocked and whirled like it was in some kind of maelstrom. Then, as Grunt was trying to piece together what was going on, a box next to him suddenly crashed open, revealing Zek had been inside it. He was covered in omni-gel packets that had burst open suddenly.

"The fuck? How'd I-"

Zek disappeared and suddenly reappeared next to Taq.

"Holy shit!" Taq shouted, jumping back.

"Tali! What's happening to them?" Shepard demanded to know.

"Their shards are reacting to the opposite current," she explained. "They're being thrown through time and space within the confines of the cargo bay."

"Oh this is getting stupid as fuck."

Tali looked beside her and jumped back in shock as she saw another Zek. The first one was still near Taq though.

"And I thought the hangover was bad," Zek groaned. "Now I'm literally seeing double."

"I know, I said the same thing," other Zek said. "Also, hold on tight."

"To wh-"

Zek vanished from Taq's side and ended up near the ceiling. He just barely grabbed onto the Hammerhead's strut as he fell. He eventually climbed up onto it before disappearing again.

"And we're all caught up, good," Zek said, trying to rush back to the conduit, although he seemed slower as he did.

Grunt shook his head in frustration and tried to return to his position, only to walk into a crate that wasn't there before. He had been teleported to the other side of the bay. He moved again, and found himself behind Shepard and the Master Chief.

"Tali! What's happening to them?" Shepard said, repeating what he had just spoken a few seconds ago.

Grunt decided not to speak and just tried to move again. He found himself falling flat onto his face in front of the conduit.

"Grunt! Where were you?" Shepard asked out of concern. "You disappeared for a hot second there!"

"I'm alright," he called out. "But we need to-"

Zek suddenly ran into him, speeding up all of a sudden.

"Son of a-!"

Both aliens crashed into a heap, eventually untangling themselves from each other.

"I am so sick of this freaky ass science shit!" Zek declared. "Seriously! Fucking done!"

Cortana appeared on the console with an update, at last explaining what was going on.

"Our reverse experiment seems to be counteracting the paradox," she informed them. "But the very nature of reality is still distorted. Time and space are trying to readjust to our interference in the anomaly!"

"Should we shut down?" Shepard asked.

"No, we're too close now!" Tali insisted. "If we shutdown now, it could be worse than riding it out!"

"Whatever we do, think fast!" Cortana warned. "I'm detecting a forming slipspace rupture... inside the cargo bay!"

Said rupture was already starting to form, Grunt could see it just behind them, swirling among the arching breaches in the fabric of reality.

"We have to be missing something!" Tali shouted. "Something that could stabilize the process!"

It was then Grunt realized something, touching his shoulder as he did.

"Our Shards! It's missing our shards!"

"What?!" Halsey asked, crying out across the miniature storm raging around them.

"Proximity isn't enough, that's the one percent margin of error!" Grunt shouted back. "The crystal's energy from the original blast is inside us! We need to touch the crystal to stabilize the paradox! So the Amplifier can recognize the signature of the remaining shards when you activate the counter current!"

Everyone stood in shock at the very words coming out of Grunt's mouth. Mainly because they were coming out of Grunt's mouth. As always, Zek spoke for everyone.

"The fuck you say?!" He screeched.

But Halsey suddenly nodded in concurrence.

"Yes! It's a very layman way of saying it, but yes!" She declared.

"That was laymen terms?" Shepard asked astonished.

"If the counter current hits the Amplifier while they're touching the Crystal, it will pick up on their shards and stabilize the singularity!" Halsey continued. "It will stop lashing out wildly and lock on to our intended targets, the remaing shards!"

"Grunt, you're a genius!" Tali shouted happily. "Now hurry! We don't have much time before the loop resets now!"

Grunt forced himself over to the crystal, dragging Zek along with him. They grabbed onto the crystal, even as blasts of lightning nearly took their heads off.

"See you on the other side, you Big Dumb Turtle!" Zek shouted affectionately.

"You too, ya Stinking Ugly Pigeon," Grunt laughed in return.

Zek just laughed, grasping the crystal harder. Grunt turned to Tali.

"Do it! Now!"

Tali flicked the switch and sent the counter current through. The Amplifier pulsed for several moments, like a beating heart, before a powerful green glow resonated from it and soon from the Crystal as well. All at once, several little flecks of light were drawn backwards into the crystal, emerging from the walls and racing to return to the broken relic. Gravity suddenly failed and they were lifted from the ground, as more and more shards entered the crystal itself.

"Here it comes!" Zek cried out, closing his eyes.

Then came a bright burst of light.

* * *

Grunt's eyes fluttered open, gazing at the ceiling above. He could smell smoke, maybe some singed metal. But even more than that, he could hear... nothing. Nothing, no song. No annoying human telling to wake him up before someone had to go go! Nothing about damn yo-yos! Silence!

Grunt jumped up from his laying position and found himself still in the cargo bay. He rushed over to a nearby corner and found Garr the Krogan Battlemaster laying there. He picked it up, hugging it slightly. Turning back to the cargo bay at large, he got a better look at everything. Zek was laying near the smoking conduit while the Amplifier and Relic lay on the ground next to each. Both were resonating, but no longer interacting with one another. Clearly, both were intact as well.

Taq suddenly rushed into view, leering over Zek.

"Idiot, hey!" She called. "You dead?"

She lightly kicked him and Zek woke up to see her staring at him. He raised his arms to try and block what he expected was an incoming fist, flinching on the floor as he did. A second later, he realized he was in the cargo bay and not on his ship.

"It... it worked?" He asked, sounding amazed.

Grunt moved over to help him up.

"We did it!" He told the kig-yar heartily. "The loop is over! We won!"

"We... we won," Zek began, almost in disbelief. "Oh Ocean's breath, we won! HA HA!"

He moved to seemingly kiss Taq, but she grabbed his beak before he could.

"No," she declared. "Just... no."

Zek laid off, just in time for Tali to come rushing up.

"Grunt! You did it! Using science even!" She shouted before happily hugging him. "I knew it! I always knew you'd come around if you just applied yourself!"

"Uhhh, thanks," Grunt said, not entirely sure why she was so elated. "But uh, I had some good teachers, really."

Tali still beamed all the same and Grunt liked the praise in any case. The quarian was right, had been from the start. Sometimes knowledge was more important than any gun. He was just happy it was over.

At least it had seemed to be. When Tali looked back to the console, expecting to see Shepard... he wasn't there. Neither was the Master Chief.

"Sh...Shepard?" Tali questioned, looking about confused. "Shepard where are you?"

Halsey clicked on the console.

"Cortana, where's John?"

There was no response.

"Cortana?" Halsey asked again, more insistent.

She briefly looked into the console herself and was shocked.

"She's... she's not here," she said, astounded and in disbelief. "She's gone too."

Tali looked to Grunt for answers, but the krogan had none.

"This... this wasn't part of the loop," Grunt assured them. "We're out of it. We're past the reset mark."

"Then where?" Tali asked. "Where's Chief? Where's Cortana? Where is Wade?!"

And for once in a long time, Grunt had no answers as to what happened next.

* * *

AN: I do though. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but once you see what I have in mind, you're going to love it I think. At least I hope so. I don't want to spoil anything, I just hope you enjoyed the laughs with this chapter, because it gets... not as funny next time. Highs and lows with me guys, highs and lows.

Do check out the blog of course, as there is some important information regarding Tali. I meant to post it earlier, but I forgot and, well, I'm fixing it now. You should find it illuminating along with the rest of my thoughts on this chapter. Remember to review, I always appreciate reading them and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter as I'm rather proud of it to be honest. I don't get as many opportunities for high concept stuff like this in this story as I'd like. Thank you all for your continued readership.


	20. Shadows Unaltered

**Chapter 19: Shadows Unaltered**

 _There is no fate but what we make for ourselves_

 _-John Connor_

Shepard crashed down onto the hard floor of the cargo bay, his eyes practically burning. As he struggled to see, he tried to call out for someone.

"Chief? Are you there?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder lift him up as his vision cleared.

"Here, sir," Chief's voice replied, the Spartan's visor coming into view.

"That damn light must've done a number on me," the Commander grumbled, rubbing his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "Did we get the plug in time? Shut the power off?"

"I don't think so, sir," Chief told him.

Shepard's vision cleared at last and what he saw horrified him. The entire Cargo Bay was a wreck. Everything was blackened, wrecked, utterly demolished. It looked like a hurricane had torn through the whole place while it had been set on fire.

"Oh no," Shepard said in shock. "Tali! Tali, where are you? Grunt? Doctor Halsey?"

Shepard frantically looked around the rubble, hoping someone had survived. As he pulled over broken beams and trashed crates, he found nothing.

"Commander, stop," Cortana insisted, popping up on Chief's Omni-tool. "They're not here. I did a life-sign scan, there's nothing aboard the _Normandy_. Save us."

"That's impossible, Shepard stated. "They were all just here!"

Shepard gave the room another look around, finding the hammerhead in one corner. It was completely trashed, broken beyond repair. It's turret lay upon the floor in a shattered heap, it's struts cracked and rusted. Upon closer look, it appeared as it had been like that for a while.

"I'm not sure what to tell you, Commander," Cortana answered. "I'm... I'm just as confused. I know, a first."

"Hmph," Chief replied, marching over to the elevator.

"What does 'Hmph' mean?' Cortana asked cattily. "I'm very rarely confused about anything."

"Mhmm," Chief answered rather plainly.

"Oh now you're just being an ass," the AI snapped back.

Chief pried open the doors to the elevator shaft, revealing that said elevator had been destroyed. What was left was a hulk of scrap metal, broken and shattered on the floor. Chief looked up into the shaft, and saw it was at least unobstructed the whole way up.

"We're going to have to climb, sir," he told Shepard.

The Commander nodded and followed the Spartan as they used the emergency ladder within the shaft to climb up out of the Cargo Bay. Shepard's mind was still reeling from what was going on. What had happened to them and why?

"Okay, lets recap," he began. "Halsey, Tali and Taq were running their experiment..."

"As was I," Cortana added.

"Right," Shepard replied, keeping close behind the Chief. "Grunt came down looking for his action figure, then Zek burst in with a black eye."

"Everything went haywire after that," Chief recalled. "I grabbed Cortana and we tried to pull the plug. I... I think at least."

"You think?" Shepard asked confused. "What do you mean think? That's... that's what happened. Right?"

But even he was unsure. He did recall pulling at the plug to the console. Grunt called out that he had found his toy and everything went white. Or, did Grunt come rushing in saying something else and trying to warn them. No, no, he remembered Grunt coming in complaining about the action figure he misplaced. He was sure that had happened. It couldn't have gone two completely different ways at the same time. That was insane.

Then again, more insane the _Normandy_ being in this dilapidated condition it certainly wasn't in five seconds ago?

"I don't know, sir," Chief admitted. "I guess... I don't know. My memory is usually sharper than this."

"Maybe we got a shock when we pulled the plug," Shepard suggested. "Messed up our heads or something."

But even Shepard wasn't entirely convinced on that front. Either way, they had to get out of this shaft and find out what had happened to the _Normandy_. He had tried to contact EDI through his commlink, but no connection could be made. He decided they had to get to the AI Core.

Once they reached the crew quarters, Chief and Shepard forced the doors open. This level was no better off than the cargo bay. No lights were on, parts of the walls were falling apart, the table in the center of the commissary was cracked in half. Plasma fire and bullet holes were everywhere, along with busted equipment littering the room. The Med Bay wasn't much better, with many of the machines inside turned over or blocking their way. Chief moved them to the side of forced them to stand up right as they pushed their way to the AI Core. Inside they found the remains of what should've been EDI's data storage server. It was now a burnt husk.

Shepard could only presume this meant EDI wasn't here. He hesitated to consider the worst.

"Cortana, can you plug in remotely?" He asked hopefully.

Cortana appeared on Chief's omni-tool and shook her head.

"There's nothing to connect to," she explained. "It's gone. Whoever took a blowtorch to this room destroyed everything."

"What is going on here?" Shepard asked, his frustration growing. "How long were we out for? What happened to my ship?"

"Is there anything still active on board that we can use?" Chief asked Cortana.

"Scanning," the AI replied, after a moment she answered. "Whatever power is left in this place seems to be routed to the _Normandy's_ cockpit. We might be able to find some answers there."

Cortana used what she could recall of the ship's schematics to bring up a map of the maintenance ducts, pointing out one in Life Support they could use to get to Mordin's lab. Shepard remembered it, Joker had said he used it when the Collectors had attacked and boarded the ship just before their jump through the Omega 4 relay. It was much easier than using the elevator shaft at least.

Both Life Support and Mordin's Lab were in similar states of disrepair. Also, both rooms gave them a proper look at the Drive Core. It had been destroyed, currently laying the ground in a shattered heap of twisted metal. The worst of it though was the CIC, which was in complete disarray, wires and consoles hanging from the ceiling or burnt out respectively. The Galaxy Map was gone, nothing but a cold empty space and dust fluttering through the air.

Shepard remembered finding the old SR-1 _Normandy's_ remains shortly after Cerberus brought him back. That had been a grim mission for him, recovering what little remained of the old crew and setting that Memorial down. This felt different, it felt unreal in the sense that this was wrong. He was just here this morning, it had been alive and full of people. Last time there was time to process the loss after waking up and getting a new ship. Now? This WAS the new ship and suddenly it was gone along with everyone else.

They reached the cockpit, the shutters to the outside world closed over the windows. Shepard wasn't really to see what the rest of the _Ascendant Justice_ looked like in comparison to this place. Assuming they were even still aboard the carrier of course. Chief took Cortana from his helmet and placed her in the console. She appeared on the dash and made quick work accessing what she could.

"Emergency power is almost gone, it's been running on fumes since the drive core blew," she explained. "Evidently from some kind of crash."

"Crash? You mean we're on a planet?" Shepard asked.

"Seems like it, with a breathable atmosphere if the sensors are still working right," the AI confirmed.

"Do you have any control over these shutters?" Chief asked.

"I think so," she confirmed. "There should be enough juice to get them working"

"Open them up," the Spartan ordered. "We need to know where we are."

Cortana turned back to the system. The shutters activated, rolling back across the top of the glass. It cracked some as it began to recede, Shepard even had to step out of the way of a shard of it as it fell. The light from outside was blinding for a brief second, as the full view of the cockpit window appeared. Both Shepard and Chief could only look on in horror at what awaited them outside.

A devastated cityscape, stretching as far as the eye could see. Blackened, cracked earth beneath them, a darkened, churning black sky above. To the side of them, a crumbling skyline of buildings, shattered glass and ruined concrete. The cause of this devastation, however, was no secret and was the true nightmare behind it all. Flying through the sky, so large that they could still be seen even miles away, were giant ships that looked like metallic squids. Some were landing, crashing down into the already demolished city. Others kept flying, slashing out blasts of red-hot energy beams from their tentacles down on the ground.

Shepard felt sick to his stomach. His nightmare was here, at last, fully realized in front of him. The Reapers had come and they had brought a war unlike no other with them. He didn't wait for Chief or Cortana to speak, he was already running for the airlock. He forced it open, using his Biotics to blow open the locks.

Jumping down from the remains of the _Normandy_ , Shepard found himself in the remains of a battlefield. He had expected to find UNSC vehicles, his mind racing with possibilities as to where they were exactly. Instead, all he saw was demolished Mako Fighting Vehicles and Grizzly Tanks. Near his right foot, he saw a cracked, discarded helmet. He picked it up, but he could already tell it was Alliance Issue. Chief and Cortana soon joined him, the Spartan jumping down and slowly walking up to the Commander cautiously.

"Where are we?" Shepard asked grimly.

There was a brief moment of silence as Cortana checked, scan geographic topography and cross-referencing her data banks. She soon had an answer, and it was the one she dreaded.

"Van... Vancouver, Canada," she said. "But... but some of these buildings... what's left of them anyway. I don't recognize them-"

"You won't," Shepard assured her.

He pointed over to a large building far off in the distance, one that looked like it had been stomped on by a giant foot. It had more likely been a giant metal robot tendril though.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's Systems Alliance HQ for the North American Region," he exclaimed. "What's left of it anyway."

"Wait, Systems Alliance," Chief questioned. "Your government?"

"Yeah," Chief said somberly. "My people. Chief, we're not in your dimension anymore. We're in mine."

"That's impossible," Cortana declared. "How could we have...? We... we weren't anywhere near the wormhole that brought you here! We haven't even found it yet!"

"Don't ask me to explain it, but look around," Shepard said, pointing out the destroyed vehicles and demolished buildings. "Does any of this like it could be your Vancouver?"

"I'd be hard pressed to recognize it as anything," Master Chief admitted.

Shepard stood staring off into space, his eyes headed skyward as he watched the twisted black sky above. He had periods of feeling powerless before, of being scared, or alone. This was no different, but right now it felt... gut-wrenching, more hopeless than ever before.

"Sir," Chief said, catching the Commander's attention. "We need to start moving. We won't find answers to what happened here."

Shepard slowly nodded, knowing the Spartan was right. They had to figure out what was going on, although he already had a sneaking suspicion. Perhaps they could reach someplace with power, with a working computer or comms. They could try contacting someone, anyone. If there was anyone to talk to left anyway.

As they started their trek through the long-dead battlefield though, they heard noises close by. Familiar ones, sickly moans and muffled screeches. Shepard knew that sound before he even saw what it was. Husks, a lot of them by the sound of it, all of them close. Very close.

From behind the wreckage surrounding them, deformed humans crawled out, their screeching and moaning alerting even more to converge on their position. Thankfully, whatever had happened to Shepard and the Master Chief hadn't taken away their weapons. Shepard still had his sidearm, as did the Spartan leader. They began firing on the approaching husks, cutting them down as they streamed towards them. As they approached striking distance, Shepard's biotic shockwave tore through their ranks, sending the killer corpses flying into the air before crashing down in a heap.

Not that it seemed to matter, as more Husks soon came to fill the void left by the fallen. Shepard and Chief kept moving through the rubble and wreckage, trying to outpace the encroaching horde. One even jumped at them from the top of a demolished gunship. Chief quickly turned to gun it down with two clean shots to the torso and then the head.

"Cortana, we need an escape route!" Chief told the AI.

"Motion tracker can't find a clear path! They're everywhere!" Cortana shouted, her voice suddenly growing more grave. "Oh no, something bigger on the scope, coming in fast and hard!"

At that moment, they heard some kind of engine, screaming over the Husk's painful wails and roars. It got closer every second before it was suddenly on top of them.

"Get down!" Shepard said, pushing Chief back.

Bursting from behind a smashed up Hammerhead appeared another vehicle. It ran over the Husks directly in its way. The doors to the driver's section flung open as three humans wearing Alliance issued armor jumped out. Highly specialized and fairly custom to be sure, but the emblem on the arms left little room for doubt as to who they were. A quick glance at them told Shepard that two were male, one of them female. One of the men, clearly older than the other two, threw out a powerful Biotic Cascade that smashed into the Husks directly on his right.

"Form a perimeter," he ordered the other two. "Watch your sides, do not let them through!"

The older man then turned to Shepard and Chief's position and rushed back to meet them. It was only now that Shepard could see the man's N7 patch emblazoned on his armor. He shot down another Husk that came screaming in from the side as he approached.

"Commander Shepard? Master Chief?"

Shepard was a little surprised this person knew his name, more so that he knew Master Chief's name.

"Uh, yes," he responded, it was all he could say in he given moment.

That elicited a slight laugh from the man.

"Well I'll be," he said. "T'Soni was right."

"Wait, T'Soni?" Shepard said, his confusion added to exponentially. "You know Liara? Is she alive?"

There was a sudden explosion from behind them as the other man shouted out over the chaos.

"Dad! We gotta go!"

"I know, Scott! I know!" The older man replied, turning back to Shepard. "Listen, I'm guessing you have a million questions, but we don't have time. You need to come with me, I can get you to Liara."

Shepard wasn't one to argue when someone was offering answers and a free ride out of the fire. Neither Chief nor Cortana offered any resistance to the idea either, so all three followed the man back to the vehicle, quickly climbing inside. Scott, the man who had yelled out before, now called out to the female still outside.

"Sarah! Come on! We're getting out of here!"

"Coming!"

Sarah was firing back on the approaching husks, moving quickly back to the vehicle when something red lashed out suddenly. An Abomination, a suicidal version of the ordinary husk, now grappled with the young woman, trying to claw off her face even as it began to sizzle and smoke.

"Sarah! No!" Both Scott and his Father cried out.

Shepard acted before either of them could, Biotically charging out of the safety of the vehicle and right into the Abomination. The husk went flying as Shepard shielded Sarah from the forthcoming explosion by turning his back to it and covering her. When the blast receded and helped Sarah up to her feet.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Thanks," the young woman said with a sigh of relief. "I thought we were saving you?"

"Didn't mean to step on your moment," Shepard assured her. "Come on!"

He helped Sarah back to the vehicle, Chief providing them cover fire. Once they were inside, the doors slammed shut and the vehicle took off, leaving the husks far behind. It took another minute before they were on stable enough ground to stop jostling and bumping each other as they race away. Once they were though, the oldest of the trio came into the back of the vehicle where Shepard, Chief and subsequently Cortana now rested. The man tore off his helmet, revealing a grey-haired and grizzled man, a thick beard covering most of his lower face. To Chief, he probably didn't look all that different, but to Commander Shepard, he knew him instantly.

"Sorry for not giving you all a proper hello, but we needed to get you out of there first," he explained. "My name is Al-"

"Alec Ryder," Commander Shepard excitedly interrupted. "Legendary Galactic Explorer and one of the most decorated officers in the Alliance Military! You were part of Jon Grissom's expedition beyond the Charon Relay! One of the first candidates for N7 training before it was even called that! Veteran of First Contact on Shanxi!"

Alec seemed more than a little taken aback by all the listing of his various accomplishments, and the sight of Commander Shepard looking positively giddy. Even the Master Chief was put off a bit.

"You've... heard of me then?" Alec asked as he tried to compartmentalize everything.

"Who hasn't heard of you?" Shepard responded in near disbelief. "You're the whole reason I even applied for N7 training in the first place! You were my idol back in basic!"

There was some laughter from the cockpit.

"Looks like you got a fan, pops," Sarah's voice giggled.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, kid," Alec said, sounding a bit annoyed.

"I'm sorry, sir," Shepard said, finally composing himself. "It's just... I never thought I'd meet you in the flesh. You kind of vanished off the radar along with Grissom a good while back."

"Yeah, not for the reasons Jon did though," Alec replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "You've already met my kids of course. Scott and Sarah, they've heard a lot more about you, both of you."

"Ahem," Cortana spoke up, appearing on Chief's Omni-tool.

"Sorry, three of you," Alex apologized. "Look, I know you have questions. I'm prepared to answer as many as I can. Liara can fill you in on the rest of it when we find her."

"So she did send you," Shepard said, his hopes truly confirmed. At least one of his friends was still around. "Thank God, but how did you know where to find us? And that Chief would be with me?"

"It's a very long story," Alec explained. "For now, the easiest way to answer that is you've missed a lot and we figured out that you'd reappear together."

"How much have we missed?" Cortana asked.

Alec seemed to struggle at the answer to the question.

"Well that's complicated, but the transmission reporting your disappearance came in around Mid to late 2185," he explained. "It's 2187 now, just a few months out to the day before anyone over here got the news you were missing."

Shepard was stunned by the revelation. He had thought it had actually been more time, but to know the truth now just made it all the more unsettling.

"We've been gone for a little over a year," he said, anger and disgust building up in his stomach. "Damn it, I missed everything. The Reapers, the invasion, the whole damn war."

"What about my dimension?" Chief asked, clearly expecting the worst as he spoke.

"I can't really speak to that, I'm sorry," Alec confessed. "But from what I hear it's nothing good and given everything that's happened, it could be worse."

Shepard could hardly think of what could be worse than this. Then again, he hadn't really asked yet, had he?

"What has happened?" He asked Ryder. "When did the Reapers show up?"

"Heh, that's hard to really place," Ryder confessed. "You could argue they showed up early, given how much the Covenant softened things up for them."

"The Covenant?" Chief asked, shock in his own voice.

"Yeah, when your crew came back through the wormhole fleeing the other universe the Covies were close behind," Alex clarified. "They assaulted every major homeworld, using some device that opened wormholes right at their doorstep. Their fleets just started pouring through them."

Shepard realized what that meant, that the Inquisitor had held true to his promise. They just made a new Stabilization device and used it to make passage through the wormhole easier. Then they had the Covenant just invade en masse, their entire empire at war with his own Galaxy.

"Everyone held on best they could, but we took a major beating before we could even drive them off to regroup," Alec continued. "That was when the Reapers showed up, just as we were licking our wounds. They went straight to the Citadel, decapitating our leadership. Palaven, Thessia, Sur'Kesh, they all fell pretty quickly once the Covenant rejoined with their masters for a renewed assault. Tuchanka probably held out the longest, then they just started glassing the place from orbit."

Shepard hung his head, trying his best to block out the horror in his mind, but he could not help but think of every soul snuffed out in the fighting. The most powerful races in the galaxy, Asari, Salarian, Turian, all helpless before the Reapers as they cut a swath through the galaxy.

"What about Earth?" Shepard asked. "When did they attack here?"

"As soon as they could," Alex answered. "What was left of the other races' fleets did their best. Tried for one last stand. _Normandy_ was part of it. More ships than any of us could imagine, countless military legions, our best and brightest strategic minds, our strongest weapons... we all aimed it at the head Reaper, thinking we could cripple it and their war effort."

Shepard knew who he was talking about.

"Harbinger," he reasoned. "You were trying to kill Harbinger."

"Try, yeah," Alec confessed sadly. "It... didn't go well. That place we found you in? That was where the battle took place, where... where everything really fell apart. We used up everything in that one strike... and it just wasn't enough."

Shepard figured as much, Harbinger's power was more than evident. He thought of his crew, how terrified they must've been.

"My people, my crew," he spoke up. "Ryder, sir, where are they?"

"A few are still alive, Shepard," Alec assured him. "They're with Liara. Once we get to our ship we can get you off the planet and deliver you straight to her. You'll probably want to hear about the finer details from her rather than me."

Yeah, he probably would. This was already enough to absorb, he couldn't think about the others. He desperately wanted to ask about Tali at least, but he was too afraid. He imagined Liara hadn't told Ryder about his relationship with the quarian, he wanted to hear the truth of the matter from a friend. Alec was his hero, sure, but hearing about how hopeless things were from him was already disheartening enough. There was only so much one could take all at once.

Thankfully, he had one friend here who could at least provide him with some comfort.

"I'm sorry, sir," Chief said. "I... wish there was something I could say."

"It's alright," Shepard told him. "Well, it's not, but... we're here now. We... we have to figure this out. It's all we can do."

A spike in his head made Shepard wince. It was probably the stress or something. Headaches brought on by everything he had apparently missed and failed to stop. However, the pain brought with it something else, something strange.

"Chief, before we ended up here, do you remember a meeting with Grunt where he took us through BBR's song lineup for some reason?"

"Um, when?" Chief asked. "And why ask now?"

"Earlier in the day I think, way before the experiment," Shepard explained. "As for why, it just... came to me now."

"That is... very weird," Chief confessed. "Cortana, have you been remembering anything strange since we arrived?"

"Not sure what you can define by strange," she informed him. "I mean, I process memory different than you. I'm not remembering anything out of the ordinary at least."

"Given what you've been through I imagine your thoughts are a little scrambled," Alec Ryder claimed. "I'm sure things will start to make sense if you give it some time."

Shepard liked to hope so, he hated not being able to trust his own damn memories for one. He just didn't understand why he seemed to be remembering contradicting events. Whatever, it was hardly his biggest concern at the moment.

"We're just a mile out from the ship, dad," Sarah reported. "No hostiles in sight."

"Good, last thing we need is another firefight," Alec sighed gratefully. "I guess the Reapers are too busy with other things at the moment."

"Like what?" Shepard asked.

"Let's just say for now we're not the only people fighting them," Alec told him. "But we don't exactly share the same agenda."

Shepard was starting to hate how this whole thing sounded. How much more terrible could pile onto this already nightmarish scenario? Before his imagination could conjure up anything concrete, Sarah shouted out something.

"There it is, Home Sweet Home."

Shepard moved back into the driver's hub at the front of the transport. Looking out the window he saw a scout ship looming over them. Smaller than the Normandy, but of similar design, with a second set of stabilizer wings at the front of the nose one of the bigger departures.

"The _Tempest_ ," Scott spoke up as they drove towards the ramp. "Stealthy, fast and capable of landing on planets. Not originally designed for battle, we had to strap some guns onto it purely as a defensive measure more than anything, but it can get us where we need to go and without drawing too much attention."

"You fly around the whole galaxy in that little ship?" Shepard asked surprised. "Don't the Reapers have control over traffic by now?"

"They do, but the _Tempest_ has some advanced tech," Sarah explained. "It can cover thirteen light years in a day and that was before we had the Slipspace Drive installed."

"You have a slipspace drive?" Chief asked curiously.

"Yeah, by the time the _Normandy_ came back through the wormhole it had integrated the technology with its systems," Scott answered simply. "We were able to develop the technology for the _Tempest_ from the schematics, integrating it with our engines. Took awhile, but we weren't building it completely from scratch. Not once we recovered one such drive from a Covie cruiser that got disabled. Between it and our long-distance travel, we don't need the Relays to get around. Although it is slower going for the most part."

"Better than getting lasered out of the sky, bro," Sarah stated.

"Can't argue with that logic," Scott agreed.

Shepard looked up at the ship as they crossed over onto the ramp, driving into its belly.

"I don't recall them developing anything like this in the Alliance," he observed.

"It wasn't for the Alliance," Alec explained. "Hell, it wasn't even built for war. But we had to adapt after..."

Alec stopped himself, seemingly remembering something painful. Shepard would've urged him to keep going, but he did so without any prodding needed.

"We were part of a potential leap forward in intergalactic exploration," he exclaimed. "An Initiative born and funded in secret, designed to launch us on a one-way ticket to the Andromeda galaxy. Members of every known species were getting set to launch into a bold new frontier and I was leading the charge for humanity on our very own Ark."

"What happened?" Chief asked him.

"Your Covenant, Master Chief," Alec informed him. "Somehow they found out where we were mustering and swarmed us. It was a small task force, but we weren't a primarily military operation. We stood no chance. By the time we fought them off, we were too damaged to make our jump window before the Covenant invaded the galaxy in full. Then the Reapers came and it was too late for anyone to escape."

Shepard couldn't help but feel saddened by the revelation. Alec, his family and so many others had a chance to escape all this and the Covenant had robbed it from them. Someone else would've felt a bit cheated by the idea of people fleeing in the face of the Reapers' onslaught. Honestly, though, he wouldn't wish this war on anyone. If someone could find a way to escape, he would be more than happy to give them the chance.

"I'm sorry, sir," Shepard told him earnestly. "It... it sounds like you were going to do something incredible. Discover a whole new frontier, a new galaxy. That's a dream opportunity for any space explorer."

"Hmph, well, all in the past now," Alec stated rather distantly. "Present mission is getting you to T'Soni."

The vehicle had by now rolled to a stop and had been secured in the hangar, clamps locking it in place. As everyone clambered out, Scott and Sarah took off their helmets. Scott had a small scar across one eye, a military grade haircut and a fuzzy beard. Sarah had slightly darker skin and dirty reddish-brown hair that was much thicker than you'd have thought it would be. How she got it all to fit inside that helmet comfortable he couldn't say.

"It's a little cramped at times," Scott said as he looked around. "But it's home."

"Scott!"

A jubilant cry and the frantic rush of running feet were followed up by a blue blur tackling the young man to the floor. Scott now lay under an Asari, wearing a purple jacket with heavy heavy black makeup made to look like a bandit's mask covering her eyes. She was straddling him, pulling up his collar and kissing him full on the lips. Shepard wondered if he should be looking away and giving them privacy, but it didn't look like that was an issue for them.

"Thank the Goddess," the asari said gratefully. "You were gone for hours! We didn't get your signal because of interference! I was worried sick! I thought something had happened to you out there!"

Scott touched her nose with his finger.

"Peebee," he said affectionately. "As if a whole planet full of indoctrinated undead monsters could keep me from getting back to you."

"I'd hope not," the asari giggled. "I like to think I'm a lot more fun than them."

She eventually looked up and spotted Shepard looming over them, still fairly confused.

"Holy shit, you found him! The Doc was right! I figured she was, but still... holy shit!"

The surprise was enough it seemed to get her off Scott and looking up at Shepard in awe.

"Hmm, you know I thought he'd be taller, honestly," she confessed as Scott stood up beside her.

"Commander, this is Peebee," he introduced her. "She's our chief archaeology expert aboard the ship. When Liara offered to help organize the survivors of the Initiative into a fighting force, she placed her with us. She's been helping us gather old tech, both Forerunner and Prothean related, since the start of the war."

"Well, Liara always had an eye for talent," Shepard said. "Good to meet you, Peebee. I... trust a handshake will suffice as far as I'm concerned?"

Peebee took the hand and shook it vigorously.

"No worries, Commander," Peebee assured him. "Scott's the only one I tackle now. It's kind of our thing. That and Zero-G stuff."

She nudged Scott and winked at him slyly. Shepard could tell even Chief was able to guess what "Zero-G" stuff meant. For his part, Scott's face flushed with red and he hastened to retake control of the conversation.

"Forgive her," Scott requested. "She is extremely blunt and has no concept of social decorum."

Peebee rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, you know you love me for it," she said in a sultry manner.

As strange as Peebee was, it did Shepard some good to see that even now two people were able to find each other in this hellscape of a future. Perhaps it meant that there were still some things worth saving. He could hope.

Peebee eventually spotted the Master Chief. To be fair he hadn't exactly made a big deal concerning his presence, even if he was a hulking super-soldier in heavy armor.

"Oh he's a big one," the asari noticed. "You're the... Master Chief, right?"

The Spartan just nodded.

"Wow, now him... he's about the size I expected," the asari confessed. "What's he eating? Krogan growth hormones?"

"Peebee, stop patronizing our guests," Alec ordered. "They've been through a lot already."

"Right, right, how silly of me," Peebee said, still a bit sardonic, yet somehow still sincere. When she turned back she had plastered a welcoming smile on her face. "Welcome to the apocalypse, guys! How's it treating you so far?"

"Pretty shitty," Shepard bluntly responded.

"Yeah, that's about right," said the asari with a catty grin. "You'll fit in around here just fine."

Cortana appeared on the Omni-tool, looking somewhat perturbed.

"Is she always like this?" She asked Scott.

"Pretty much," Scott shrugged.

"Humor is a wonderful way to mask the crippling anxiety of every encroaching moment potentially being our last," Peebee informed the little AI. "Trust me, if you had nightmares, you'd be doing it too, little purple lady."

"Well luckily I'm not burdened with that sort of thing," Cortana replied. "Just another one of many things that makes me grateful to not be an organic being I guess. That and my superior sense of sarcastic wit."

Peebee just grinned broadly.

"Oh, I'm gonna like her," she said excitedly. "Cortana, right?"

"In the code," the AI answered. "I'm assuming you've heard a bit about me."

"Well mostly that you loved screwing with people and refused to be modest about anything," Peebee explained. "I was hoping it was true."

"Well it wasn't wrong at least," Cortana replied smugly. "No reason to be modest when you're amazing."

She could hear Chief's "Hmph" before he even said it.

"I will ignore that this time," she informed him.

Shepard could feel the ship lifting off from the ground, the floor shaking beneath them. As it did, he spotted a turian, female from the looks of her fringe, walking up and hugging Sarah close. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, of course, but it was hard not to in such a confined space. Sarah pointed towards him, causing the turian to saunter over.

"Sarah tells me you ended up saving her out there," the turian said, stretching out her hand. "Thanks... for getting her back to me. Name's Vetra, good to meet you, Commander."

Shepard took the hand graciously.

"Think nothing of it," he told her. "People keep telling me I have a hero complex. I just see danger and rush in. Easier to do with a biotic charge of course."

Vetra just laughed.

"Holy shit, he's the real deal," she said looking over to Sarah. "Doctor T'Soni wasn't kidding about the modest badass act, was she?"

"She didn't really phrase it like that," Sarah recalled. "I mean, it's the general sense of what she said but still..."

That did sound like something Liara would emphasize about him. If not in those exact words, she would in some fashion. He just hoped she hadn't exaggerated his abilities too much. In light of everything going on, he doubted just getting him and Chief back could fix this mess. Then again, Liara always had a plan when it came to this sort of thing.

"Are you another survivor of the Initiative?" Shepard asked Vetra.

"I was in charge of the _Tempest_ ," Vetra explained. "Well, in so far as keeping it supplied with the things it needed once we got to Andromeda. When everything went to hell I just became the quartermaster full time. Not so bad though, I mean, I met Sarah through this job."

"We all have to take what comforts we can find I guess," Shepard acknowledged.

A nearby door opened up, revealing another human woman striding towards Alec. She was around Sarah and Scott's age, with blonde hair cut short and swept over her eye.

"Harper, everything green?" Alec asked.

"I told T'Soni the good news, she's expecting us at HQ soon," the woman responded, soon turning her gaze to Shepard and the Master Chief. "Still can't believe this didn't turn out to be a wild goose chase."

"Oh, are we suddenly starting to doubt the word of an asari now, Cora?" Peebee teased.

"Like you believed that crazy story any more than the rest of us did," Cora snapped back.

"Hey. given all the weird shit that has gone down over the past year or so, nothing honestly surprises me anymore," Peebee claimed rather confidently. "Besides, the Doc is a fellow archaeologist. We have a code of trust between us."

Cora rolled her eyes, but Shepard stopped them before things continued.

"I'm still a bit in the dark over everything, honestly," he informed her. "I'm assuming Liara will explain it when we get back to your base?"

"Sorry, Commander," Cora apologized. "I didn't mean to be rude. Unlike some people."

Peebee just smirked, clearly enjoying the rise she was getting out of the woman. Thankfully, Alec stepped in.

"Shepard, Chief, this is my second," he explained. "Cora Harper, trained in advanced combat and leadership tactics. She's one of the best soldiers we have left fighting this war."

"Good to have you with us then," Shepard told her.

"Same and, actually, I'm here to bring you to someone aboard who can fill you on some more details," Cora explained. "Please, follow me."

Shepard followed after Cora as they got onto a lift in the hangar bay and ascended to the second level. And while he was curious as to who she was taking him to, he had other questions to ask.

"I gotta ask, what's it like working under Alec Ryder?" He prodded. "It must be such an honor."

"He's one of the finest officers I've ever known, well, outside the Asari," Cora exclaimed. "I'm grateful he trusted me as his second. Although, honestly, I wish it were under better circumstances."

"The war is going that bad?" Chief asked.

"Worse than many imagined it would," Cora answered bluntly. "They recovered you from the _Normandy_ wreck right? That fight wasn't even the biggest battle, just the one we managed to keep going the longest. Most of our successes come from engaging the Covenant fleet in sporadic skirmishes. Fighting the Reapers is near impossible. There's nothing left big enough to kill one anymore, not unless we steal some big guns from the Covies and that's increasingly rare."

They entered the main command center, the main door swishing open. Cora turned the corner, pointing to a set of stairs that led up to a raised section behind them.

"That goes up to the main briefing area," she explained. "She's waiting for you there."

Shepard and Chief climbed the steps, emerging into a small rounded meeting room with a holotable in the center, windows providing a view outside around them. They could see the clouds passing by as the _Tempest_ broke out of the atmosphere and into the starlit void. Shepard got a good glimpse of Earth as they left it behind. A burnt out, devastated husk, fires raging across whole continents, black smoke replacing white clouds. It looked like a portrait of hell.

"What they did to Earth is a nightmare alright," said a familiar voice. "It's nothing compared to the rest of the galaxy."

Shepard knew who was speaking before he even turned to face her. What he saw though was shocking. Standing before him, approaching out of the shadows, was Miranda Lawson. Where her right arm should've been however was a mechanical one, similar to Noble Three's original one. Her face a far cry from its usual stunning beauty. There was a patch over one eye and scar ripped across the bridge of her nose.

"Miranda," Shepard said in shock. "What... what happened?"

"You know better than anyone what war takes, Shepard," she replied bluntly. "This one took a bit more from me than expected."

Shepard felt his stomach groan in guilt. He could barely even look at Lawson because of it. This was his fault, his screw up.

"I should've been here," he told her. "I should-"

"It wasn't your fault," Miranda assured him. "It was the experiment."

The experiment? The one with the relics? What did it have to do with... wait did they even do the experiment? He remembered postponing it for some reason. Ugh, again with the contradicting memories. He tried to keep it straight in his mind. He had already suspected that the experiment was at fault for this, but he still didn't know why. Apparently, Cortana had already figured it out though.

"The Crystal, it had some kind of time manipulation function, didn't it?" Cortana asked.

"Yes," Miranda confirmed. "And through the Amplifier and an excess power surge, it somehow transported you three forwards through time, locked to a singular position within the _Normandy's_ cargo bay. It's the only explanation we can figure as to why you ended up here in this dimension with the ship's remains."

"What happened back in my universe?" Chief asked, his voice slightly desperate. "Alec said you had to flee. Why?"

Miranda sighed sadly, looking out the window into the void for a moment.

"It all fell apart, Shepard," she stated plainly. "Without you, Chief, Cortana, it just... crumbled. The Alliance with Zek to begin with. Not long after you vanished he decided to split with the relics and find the Cutlass on his own. He got sick of following orders and the longer you were gone, the fewer reasons he had to stay. In the end, it just didn't work without you."

Shepard shook his head disappointedly. He wasn't really surprised to hear that, but what came next was worse.

"By the time we got back to the Earth in your dimension, Chief, it was completely under siege," Miranda continued. "We didn't know where they came from, but the Covenant swarmed the planet. We... we did our best to save who we could but..."

Shepard approached slowly, seeing how painful the memories were for Miranda. She pressed on all the same.

"Jacob, Mordin, Thane... they didn't make it," she said, close to tears. "And... I'm sorry Chief, but neither did your Spartans."

Chief lowered his head, a look of defeat clear as day across his face even though no one could really see it.

"They all fought till the end, but the Inquisitor had opened up its little science lab and sent every screwed up nightmare creation it could dream up right at us," Miranda growled under her throat. "And all those upgrades it got didn't help. It didn't matter if it was smaller than Sovereign, by the time it got to Earth, the Covenant had cleared away enough defenses that it ceased being a war. It was just a massacre. The Inquisitor was levelling whole cities just by itself. We had no choice, we had to get out of there while we could."

"You made a break for the Wormhole," Shepard reasoned.

"It was our only option," Miranda stated. "We led as many ships left to it once we discovered the location. We still wouldn't have broken the Covenant blockade if it hadn't been for Zek."

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise.

"He came back? Why?" Shepard asked, shocked at the turn in the story.

"To bring us back the Amplifier and to protect our backs while we escaped," Miranda answered. "He sent Taq over with it, probably hoping she'd be safe in the other dimension. Unfortunately, her shuttle took a hit and was badly damaged. When we got to her, she was barely breathing. Zek's ship was destroyed by the time we got her back to the _Normandy's_ med bay to try and stabilize her. That was when she shoved the damn Amplifier in my hands and told me it was 'the key' before she succumbed to her wounds. I didn't know what she meant at the time."

"I'm assuming you discovered she meant the key to finding us again," Cortana presumed.

"That was just part of it, but yes," Miranda stated. "We only found that out later, after fighting the Covenant as they invaded our Galaxy, followed closely by the Reapers of course. Earth fell before we discovered what she meant by it. We lost... too many good people that day."

"Who?" Shepard asked desperately. "Who did we lose?"

Miranda took a moment to compose herself, clutching at her metal arm.

"Joker and EDI died when the _Normandy_ crashed," she explained. "Along with everyone else who didn't get to an escape pod. Garrus, Samara, Kasumi, Jack... they're all gone, Shepard. There's only a handful of the original crew left."

Shepard fell backwards into a seat nearby, his hands buried into his palms. Garrus was dead? Kasumi? Jack? Samara? All just... gone? And he hadn't been here to help them. Any of them. He had failed them by not being there for them. By not being the Commander he should've been. He felt Chief's hand on his shoulder.

"Commander, I'm sorry," he said.

Shepard patted the Spartan's arm and did his best to compose himself.

"Where are the others?" He asked. "The ones who are left? Tali? Where's Tali?"

Miranda looked crestfallen.

"They're... they're alive, Shepard," she said. "More or less. We're stationed out of an old Alliance Training facility on the moon. It was the only place left to go that was close to Earth. We had to wait and prepare for your return. It... it was our only shot."

"At what?" Chief asked.

"Ending this," Miranda declared, determination burning in her remaining eye. "Ending all of this before it even starts."

Miranda didn't get to elaborate on that statement, as much as Shepard wanted her too. End this? There was a way to stop this from happening? All of it? Right now there was nothing more Shepard wanted in both universes. Instead of getting answers to how they could do that, Alec's voice came over the intercom.

"Everyone, we got trouble! We're going in hot!"

Hot? That was never a good thing to hear. Miranda was already running towards the cockpit as Shepard and Chief joined her. When they reached it, they found Alec standing in the command position. A woman sat in a copilot's chair on the left, wearing a labcoat. The pilot's seat was filled by a salarian. All three were staring in horror out the window. Shepard soon joined them.

He could see the surface of the Moon and a small facility among the rocks. He could see fire erupting from a number turrets, as well as several crashed shuttles and transport craft. As well as a number of figures he could see patrolling the area firing on the turrets.

"I've confirmed it, sir," the woman in the labcoat said, speaking in a Scottish accent. "It's them."

An image appeared on one of the holoscreens, confirming what Shepard had already suspected by now. It was not a husk they were looking at on the screen. It was a human Combat Form. The Flood were here too.

"The Flood are here?" Chief shouted aloud. "How are they here? We killed them."

"Guilty Spark said there were other rings," Cortana reminded him. "Other rings with more Flood Samples. The Covenant... they must've set them loose again."

"I'm sorry," Miranda apologized suddenly, her voice flustered and anguished. "I meant to tell you both. But after telling you about the others... how they died..."

Shepard stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder. He wasn't intent on blaming her or being angry at you for not reliving every horrible detail at once. He just wanted to find out what he could now. That was all that mattered.

"When?" He simply asked. "When did they show up?"

"Our push against Harbinger," Miranda answered. "They just swarmed Earth along with our other forces. We might have actually stood a chance but their attack diverted resources. They were the reason we failed so horribly that day."

"Are... are they working with the Reapers?" Shepard asked, the horrifying thought instantly crossing his mind.

"No," Alec answered. "Near as we can tell they're fighting them too. They're the reason our resistance cell has survived so long. Reapers and Covenant are fending them off more than hunting us down. There are still pockets of the bastards on Earth they're trying to burn out."

"Who's winning?" Cortana asked.

"Does it matter?" Alec asked in return. "Between the two of them, it's like picking between the frying pan and the fire. Look, we can talk more about this later. Our people are dying down there. We lose this base and we lose everything."

Shepard just nodded as did the Master Chief.

"Get us some weapons, sir," Shepard requested. "We've been out of this fight long enough."

Alec grinned at that.

"Let's get you geared up then," he said.

* * *

The _Tempest_ fired a single cannon shot near their landing zone, clearing out a few of the Combat Forms swarming the area. When it came in for a landing, the ship had barely touched the ground before the hangar doors opened. Shepard jumped free of the vessel, the Master Chief close behind. Not even a second after landing did a number of Combat Forms rush them. Shepard opened up on them with Shockwave, ending their mad dash before it had even begun.

The rest of Alec's team soon rushed down the gangplank as the _Tempest_ landed. Scott let loose with assault rifle fire, cutting into a few of Combat Forms opening up on their position. Chief was the first to notice something familiar about said rifle.

"That's an MA5," he recognized.

"Oh yeah, your team brought back a lot of specs for weapons to reproduce," Scott explained. "It's pretty old school, uses real bullets, but it's more effective on Flood forms."

"Or you could be like me and just use ammo mods," Peebee declared, taking aim with her pistol.

Firing her gun at the Flood forms, Peebee managed to damage two Combat Forms with clean shots to the chest.

"Warp ammo," she grinned. "Tears at their insides."

Alec quickly took point, Cora backing him up. Alec formed a Singularity that picked up a few Flood Carrier forms as they waddled towards them. Cora then plugged them both with her own Warp Ammo, detonating the field and causing an explosion that destroyed the Infection forms that survived the initial blast.

"Everyone pair up, we need to cover the most ground," Alec ordered. "Cora, take Vetra and Sarah to the East Entrance, chatter is warning of a breach. Scott, Peebee, you're with me, we need to clean out everyone topside before heading in. Cut off the attack at the source."

"Where do you need us, sir?" Shepard asked.

"Lawson will take you two directly to the Commander Center," Alec insisted. "We'll try to catch up with you once things are clear."

Miranda moved in on their right, firing her pistol at the Combat Forms ahead of them.

"We need to move, fast," she insisted. "We've fortified best we could, but this place wasn't built to survive a full-blown assault."

"Lead the way, Miranda," Shepard requested.

Lawson rushed over the hill, firing as she went, both biotics and her gun. Shepard backed her up best he could, using his Shockwave to knock the Combat Forms back. Chief was currently using a Scimitar Shotgun with Shredder rounds, ripping apart encroaching Combat Forms with ease. One of them rushed at the trio, blasting away with a Revenant Assault Rifle. Chief rolled across the moon dust to avoid the shots, popping back up to return the favor and gun the creature down. When he got a better look at it though, he was perplexed.

"That one looked like Garrus and Vetra's species," he stated. "A turian."

"The Turian colonies held out the longest until the Flood invaded," Miranda shouted over the fire. "Even their exoskeletons couldn't protect them from infection! The Flood just found ways to burrow past the plates!"

They eventually reached the safety of one of the entrances to the underground. With a missile turret firing over their heads at invading undead monsters, Shepard was almost too distracted to realize something. He had been here before.

"Hey," he said. "This is the Alliance Training Camp. The one where I shutdown that Rogue VI."

"Liara remembered it," Miranda informed him as she punched in the entry code. "It was shuttered after you took care of that VI, but the superstructure remained intact. We just added onto it after we moved in."

The airlock doors swung open and Miranda ushered them inside.

"Come on, we have to stop the Flood before they infest the whole damn place," Lawson insisted. "Liara should be directing things from Control. If we lose that, we lose everything."

* * *

Miranda hadn't been kidding about the remodelling they had done to the training facility. It seemed to have been expanded with a number of tunnels cutting into the rock. It had to have taken some time to accomplish all that, especially given the circumstances.

Miranda led them through the alternating halls and quickly dug caverns. He could see various beds and rooms built for extra power and storage. There were probably more people in here than they realized or could see at the moment. He wondered how many were combatants or just desperate survivors? He wanted to ask Miranda, but far more pressing matters plagued his mind.

As they turned one hallway, a door burst open further down the way. From behind it, a number of Combat Forms swarmed into the corridor. They fired on the team, forcing them into cover. Chief opened up in kind, ripping off the firing arm of one Combat Form. It charged across the length of the hall, flailing its remaining arm. Miranda grabbed it by what had once been the corpse's throat, using her mechanical hand and then used her Biotics to punch it into pieces.

More Flood soon filled the corridor though, the sound of battle calling to them. Shepard used his Shockwave to break some of their number up, but they were as relentless now as they ever been back on Halo. It was starting to seem like they would have to fall back, even as the Flood stepped over the broken and desiccated corpses of their fellows. Until an explosion ripped apart theirs.

It hadn't been a grenade from Chief's arsenal though. Rushing out of the smoke, firing into the downed Combat Forms, appeared a man, possibly of African descent. Miranda was quick to call out to him.

"Liam! What are you doing here?" She asked.

"T'Soni saw you enter on the cameras," he replied. "She sent me to fetch you. I know, I know, Ryder put me on base Security detail and everything, but when Liara gives an order-"

There was a sudden roar from a few corridors down, reminding them all of the gravity of the situation.

"Forget it," Miranda told him. "We need to get to Control, now!"

Liam just nodded, taking point, even as he looked back at Shepard.

"So, you really found him?" He asked. "We might actually have a chance now, right?"

"Not if we get killed by the Flood," Miranda informed him grimly. "Eyes open."

"Right, right, sorry," Liam apologized. "It's just a bit crazy is all."

Shepard could infer Liam was also part of Alec's team. Maybe just a bit frazzled as well, but he had been able to find them in all this chaos. That was admirable.

"Liam, what happened?" Shepard asked as they moved through the halls. "When did this attack start?"

"Twenty minutes ago, tops," Liam answered. "Came out of the sky in shuttles and dropships. We wondered if they were refugees, turns out not so. We took a few out when we realized something was wrong, but enough crashed down and started swarming the base."

"Has Control been breached?" Miranda asked.

"No, Doc is secure, so are the living quarters," Liam assured. "But they're all streaming right towards it."

That piece of information seemed to disturb Miranda the most.

"Damn," she growled. "We got to move."

They turned a corner, picking up speed as they did. That unfortunately put them right in the path of a pair of Combat Forms armed with missile launchers.

"Down!" Chief shouted.

He tackled Miranda as Shepard ducked with Liam. The missiles flew over their heads striking the wall far behind them. Chief popped up to fire on them, only for part of the wall near the Flood to give way. Something charged through it, smashing the Combat Forms apart and squishing them against the opposite wall under the weight of his girth. Once he got a decent look, Shepard realized it was a krogan, one who had quite literally smashed through a wall. His armor was covered in bones, no doubt from kills he had made. He was also lugging around a huge shotgun with a pointed double blade bayonet attached to its barrel.

"Ha Ha! Told them they needed to make these things thicker." The big burly alien declared.

"Drack, good to see you, mate," Liam called out as he stood up.

"Oh, hey," the Krogan replied. "Didn't know they were firing on you, Liam. Just chasing down some Flood, can't let the others take all the good trophies."

Shepard got up off the floor, as did Chief and Miranda, who the Spartan helped to stand. Drack whistled upon seeing them both. He didn't need to voice his reason for doing so in order for Shepard to figure out the intent. This was quickly becoming a common reaction, surprise that he and Chief were here. How unbelievable was Liara's theory? Then again, he was here in the future back in his own universe and he was still having a hard time believing that.

"Commander Shepard," the krogan laughed as he approached. "The legend himself. Heh, guess I owe Wrex some rations now. Should have known better to doubt T'Soni's hunch."

"Wrex is here?" Shepard said, overjoyed to know at least another of his old friends was alive.

"Yeah, and your tank-bred kid," Drack stated. "Not for long though, if we don't break this infestation hard and fast."

So even Grunt was here. A sigh of relief washed over him. Miranda had said the crew was alright, a few of them anyway, but she hadn't explained to what extent. Knowing Grunt and Wrex were still in the fight was a relief to him more than anything.

"Come on," Drack ushered. "I'm not the only old geezer in need of a hand. I'm trying to shore up defenses in one of the bunk rooms close by. The Flood take that, they can get to Control and the lower levels."

"That's not happening," Miranda declared. "Lead the way."

Drack led them to the room, rushing through the doors as the opened. He impaled a Combat Form on his bayonet, rammed him into a wall and then unloaded the weapon in it. The body was practically blasted in two and Drack continued to unleash hellfire on the other hostiles nearby. The room they were in was indeed a crew quarters of some kind, re-purposed from one of the older original rooms that made up what had once been the training facility. Last time Shepard was here, he had been fighting Rocket Drones. Now, more horrifying foes surrounded them.

The Combat Forms were all over the place, rushing in and out of cover with little concern for themselves. Shepard shot down one of their number as it jumped on a nearby box. As he did, a burst of flame exploded to his right. Three Combat Forms were set ablaze, running like mad, screeching in anguish. Shepard looked to where the flames came from. The culprit was soon found, a Firestorm Flamethrower, held by another familiar face. Drack hadn't been kidding about there being another old timer in here.

"Bloody hell, Shepard," Zaeed declared. "Never thought I'd see your ass again."

Zaeed, despite being alive, did not look great. Granted, he had never looked like a fresh-faced soldier or anything, but this was worse. Half his face was covered in third-degree burns, the other half even more cut up than when Shepard had first met him. His arms were grafted with even more implant scars and cybernetic grafts.

"Massani," Shepard said, wondering if there was anything left he could be shocked by. "You look like hell."

"Still as lucky in war as ever, for whatever that's worth," Zaeed said, before suddenly wheezing horribly. "Damn it, some days I wonder if being too damn stubborn to die is a curse."

"Preaching to the choir, Massani!" Drack shouted from across the room.

One of the vents up top exploded at that moment, a number of Infection forms bursting forth from it. Zaeed lit up his flamethrower and blasted it right at them.

"Come on, Commander," he cried. "As long as we're living, might as well make it hurt for them!"

A sentiment that Shepard could get behind. He used his biotics to charge into the fray, sending a number of Combat Forms flying. He blasted his Shotgun at them as he moved across the room, Zaeed backing him up with a wall of flames. At the same time, he watched the Master Chief gun down another turian Infection Form, while Liam covered his forward advance. Drack mostly was just bull rushing through the Flood, Miranda cleaning up any he missed in his wake.

As they kept pushing though, more Flood seemed to be drawn into the room. They burst from behind walls, crawled out of ducts, broke down doors that had been sealed.

"We're going to get overrun!" Shepard called out. "Zaeed? We need backup!"

"I have none! They were all dead before you even showed up!" Zaeed exclaimed. "Infection Forms, had to kill'em myself!"

Shepard quickly searched the frequency on his communicator.

"Ryder, sir!" He called out. "We're getting overrun here!"

That was when one of the doors burst open, sending a few Combat Forms nearby tumbling over each other. The cause wasn't one of their own though, it was a Biotic Detonation, caused by a Shockwave attack. Rushing inside the room and gunning down the nearby hostiles, were Scott and Peebee.

"Hey gang! You miss us?!" Peebee asked.

"Watch it!"

Scott grabbed Peebee, bringing him over into his arms as a Flood Form suddenly stood up and tried to swipe at her. A concussive shot sent the corpse flying back into a wall, with Scott holding Peebee in a rather suggestive embrace.

"You know, he wasn't even that close," Peebee told him. "You just wanted to touch my ass, didn't you?"

"Uh, no," Scott claimed, rather flustered at the accusation.

"You really don't need an excuse, babe," she assured him. "You know that, right?"

The moment was broken up when Alec walked into the room.

"Flirt later," he told them. "Kill things now."

"Aye, Aye, Captain!" Peebee saluted.

Alec had pulled out an Omni-Blade and, without missing a beat, cut down a Combat Form as it tried to rush him. He then sent a Biotic Throw attack that resulting in throwing two more Flood creatures right into a wall. Suddenly, he looked up and blasted his shotgun into the vents above. Another Combat Form tumbled out of it moments later. A Carrier Form stumbled into view next, he merely pulled it into with Biotics before releasing it at another Combat Form group and firing at it with Inferno Rounds.

Shepard stood in awe, he knew how accomplished a soldier Alec Ryder was, but seeing him in action was another thing entirely. All these years and he had not lost a single move. He was just as amazing as the vids always said he was.

And yet, things still had gone down the toilet even with him here to help Liara. Not exactly something that gave him hope for his chances in the long run. He shook the thought off quickly all the same, they still had a job to do.

He and Zaeed supported Alec as he moved towards the Master Chief's position. He was firing like mad at a chokepoint within the bunks lined up in the room, trying to keep the Combat Forms contained. However, he soon began running low on thermal clips. Luckily, Liam had some extra to spare and passed them along. As the fire intensified from the Combat Forms though, Chief's shields began to fail. Alec stepped in front of him at that moment, pulling up a biotic shield in front of him. He reflected the incoming bullets, sending them back at the Combat Forms. Because they were mostly using Mass Effect weapons though, they did little to no damage. Not that it mattered, as Alec was just the distraction.

"Scott! Now!"

A powerful shrapnel blast exploded among the Combat Forms, shredding them to bits. Alec had drawn the attention of the Flood onto him, allowing his son to fire off a Carnage shot that decimated the enemy's ranks and give Chief time to recover from their onslaught.

There was little time to really congratulate everyone on their efforts. An entire wall just suddenly exploded, revealing the maintenance access beyond it. Combat Forms rushed out, firing like mad at anything that moved.

"I got this!" Peebee shouted. "Cover me!"

Shepard wasn't sure what she intended, but protected the asari as she rushed into position, drawing enemy fire as she moved in. When she was close enough, she activated her omni-tool. Little red lights suddenly ejected out of them, striking the Combat Forms. They appeared disoriented for a moment, unable to shoot straight, until they suddenly just all exploded. Shepard was almost stunned.

"Invasion attack," Peebee giggled from cover. "Something they developed for our Andromeda expedition. Little VI controlled robobugs that infect enemies and screw with them. When they damage the enemy enough, they explode! Like most things that are fun actually."

"Your Initiative had some killer tech," Shepard complimented.

"None of it really intended for this stuff," Peebee noted. "But hey, least it's getting some use."

Another door opened wide, stepping back into the room now were Vetra, Cora and Sarah. Vetra was firing off a storm of Inferno rounds, first into the hallway they were backing out of, then into the Flood forms in the room when Cora ordered her to shift the focus of her attack.

When Vetra turned, Miranda moved up into her position. Shepard, moving to get a better look, now saw what they did, a mass of Combat Form moving on their position. Cora hit something on her Omni-tool, shouting something about shields being boosted. Miranda then sent out a series of Warp attacks, as quick as she could. Sarah then readied what appeared to be a biotic lance in her hands.

"Hit them!" Cora ordered. "Hit them now!"

Sarah let loose, her lance striking one of the primed Flood forms. In the next instant, a terrible biotic explosion ripped the Combat Form ranks, destroying them all. The three women now fell back, moving over to regroup with Vetra.

"That the last of them?" Liam asked, scanning the room.

"Kosta! I told you to stop saying that!" Zaeed shouted. "You always jinx us!"

Sure enough, the team heard footsteps thudding towards the very door Shepard and the others had used to get in this very room. Along with a horrific roar that Shepard remembered from earlier.

"I hate it when you don't listen to your elders, Liam," Vetra chided, readying her assault rifle.

At that moment, bursting through the doors, screaming violently at them, was a lumbering tower of rotting flesh. It looked like an undead Gorilla, only ten times bigger, hunched over on all fours and clearly very pissed off.

"Tank!" Alec called out. "Scatter!"

Everyone did, save for Drack who took the monster's charge head on stopping it cold in the middle of the room. Cora slammed into its side with a biotic charge, disorienting it slightly while Vetra poured on the incendiary rounds. All the same, it smacked Drack away and nearly crushed Cora. It turned on Shepard and the Master Chief, rushing at them like a bull. Both of them dodged in separate directions, avoiding the beast. It smashed into a small, causing the whole room to shake. Chief brought up Cortana on his Omni-tool.

"What the hell is that thing?" He asked. "A Hunter Flood Form?"

"No," Cortana warned. "I'm detecting no trace elements of any known species. This thing... it's... it's pure Flood Biomass!"

"You mean that thing is just... Flood?" Shepard asked in disbelief. "They... grew it?"

The Tank moved to charge again, pounding at the floor with its fists. Chief readied aim at the creature's mouth, where the weird plant-like tendrils were. Perhaps, like the regular Combat Forms, it was an indicator of a weak spot.

Instead, a giant metal fist crashed into it. From out of one of the blown open doors, some kind of Mech emerged. It was bulbous and hunched over. Colored a royal shade of blue, one arm seemed to be sporting a giant Needler, while rocket packs boosted the suit into the fray. The Tank lay on the floor, trying to get up, as a big old robotic boot slammed into its head. One arm grabbed the Flood Form by the neck, while the Needler Gun fired into its stomach at point blank range. It then kicked the Tank away and it exploded into a pink mist.

The mech then turned towards Shepard and the Master Chief. While it didn't look like it was Flood or Reaper tech, it did have some very similar aspects to Covenant weaponry. Upon even closer inspection, they could see what looked to be the outline of an unggoy sitting in the cockpit of the thing. However, Peebee and Scott were quick to calm the two down, forcing them to lower their weapons gently.

"Easy super commandos," Peebee said. "He's one of ours."

"Yeah, one of the Doc's elite even," Scott added with a chuckle. "Although, you wouldn't know it just by looking at him without the suit."

The cockpit opened, revealing the unggoy sitting at the controls. He was wearing a mask over his face, feeding him methane most likely and had facial paint on, also colored blue. He gave both Shepard and the Chief a hearty salute.

"Kayap," Alec said as he approached the scene. "A little close on the timing there, weren't ya?"

"There were a lot of bad guys to clean up," he claimed. "Boss has already sent people to clean out what's left. Only stragglers now."

"Boss?" Shepard asked confused.

"Liara," Peebee elaborated. "It's what he calls her. He's like her chief enforcer next to Wrex ever since they grabbed that suit from a Covie Battlecruiser they disabled."

"Shepard, Chief," Kayap spoke to them in a fairly commanding tone. "Liara needs to see you now. Follow me back to Control. She'll explain everything."

The cockpit closed back up and Kayap began to exit the room, his mechanical footsteps shaking the floor every time he inched forward.

"Best get going," Sarah warned them from across the way. "He can get real testy when you don't listen. Which with him is both cute and incredibly scary."

Shepard would hardly put unggoy and scary in the same sentence together. However, Kayap didn't seem like your typical unggoy. Liara had mentioned in her transmissions she had picked up the little guy when he invaded her ship and defected to her side. He had sounded like a timid soul when Liara had described him. Evidently, not so much anymore.

"Come on!" Kayap called back over the suit's megaphone system. "We're wasting enough time as it is. Which, I guess is the whole point of this when you think about it. Now move it!"

Not wanting to be commanded a third time by anunggoy, Shepard, Chief and Cortana just shrugged and followed him. The rest of the group close behind.

* * *

Kayap led them towards a room carved out of the rock around them. He parked the mech in a small alcove just outside a large door and hopped out. Hooking himself up to a portable methane tank attached to the wall, before pressing a button on the side of his helmet. His gas mask separated near the mouth and retracted back into his helmet. There were still tubes feeding into his nostrils and his mouth, but now they could see his face more clearly. The paint on his eyes that had seen before covered most of his face, a bright blue that Shepard recognized very clearly as Liara's own color tint. Kayap next waddled over the keypad near the door and input a code.

"How much did Lawson tell you?" He asked. "About why we're here."

Shepard presumed he meant the moon.

"She explained that Liara knew we'd be reappearing here and they had to wait as close by as possible," he replied. "And that I'm somehow the key to fixing this."

"You both are," Kayap corrected him, looking at Chief as well as him. "Boss sacrificed a lot to keep this place safe for so long for both of you. So I hope you can deliver. For her sake. For everyone's."

He was certainly more authoritative than any unggoy they had met before. Shepard wondered if that was from the mech or how long the little guy had been fighting. One thing was for sure, his thoughts seemed centred squarely on Liara.

The doors opened wide and Kayap ushered them in.

"She'll explain everything," he said as he walked in ahead of them.

The Control Room was a bustle of activity, various species, mostly human but plenty of asari and turians as well. They were stationed at various screens and terminals, feverishly going over information across their screens, all talking at once. Others were soldiers, armed to the teeth and geared up in specialized armor. Shepard wasn't two feet into the room when a giant hand clasped on his shoulder. He turned to see it was attached to someone he knew, a still young, but not so fresh-faced, krogan.

"Shepard!" Grunt declared, greeting him before pulling him into a giant hug. "Ha ha! I knew you'd be back! Liara said as much and she's smarter than any of us."

"Grunt, been a long time, well, from your perspective," Shepard said, squeaking out the words even as he felt Grunt crushing him.

A wave of memories struck Shepard's mind in that instant. Grunt looking for his toy, but also sitting in the med-bay with Zek, as well as barging into Miranda's office on the _Normandy_ with varying degrees of urgency and, sometimes, boredom. More contradicting events, it made no sense. He could only hope Liara would sort it all out.

Grunt finally put him down.

"You and Chief better get over to Liara, she'll want to see you," he explained. "We'll talk once you're settled. We're going to fix all of this, just you wait."

Grunt seemed so sure, yet Shepard couldn't figure out why. As he walked over towards what appeared to be the center of the room, he could see various people stopping to stare at him in Chief. They seemed amazed that he was here, now. Some seemed concerned, others were perhaps hopeful. Again, he wasn't sure why.

Eventually, he got close to the holographic table in the middle of the room, staring directly at the backside of someone hunched over the thing, deep in thought and gripping the sides of the table tightly.

"Have third and fifth squads perform a perimeter check," she said. "We need to be sure they're all dead up there. And I need that report on the weapons cache raid, how many plasma weapons we got and how many we lost getting them."

Shepard recognized the voice instantly.

"Liara?"

The figure stood straight suddenly, as the whole room fell silent. She turned from the table ever so slowly, not entirely sure if she should at first. There stood Liara T'Soni, her tattered brown longcoat revealed as well as a small scar across her cheek and a bandana across her neck.

"Wade."

She said his name with almost utter disbelief, before rushing over to him and embracing him in a hug. Her arms closed in behind his head and he could feel tears in her eyes against his skin. He did his best to recover from the shock and returned the hug.

"I... I'm sorry," she said. "It's just... after everything... It's been so long. I... I was beginning to think I... we..."

It's okay," Shepard said, calming her. "It's okay."

Eventually, Liara pulled away and dried her eyes.

"It's... it's good to see you, Shepard," she told him, turning to the Spartan next to him. "And a pleasure to finally meet you, Master Chief."

The Spartan nodded in return.

"Likewise ma'am," he said.

"And Cortana is with you, correct?" She asked.

The AI appeared on his Omni-tool.

"Present," she replied. "And by the way, nice set up you have down here."

"We've done what we could," Liara insisted. "But your approval is appreciated, thank you. Right now though, we need to talk."

"I'd hope so, I feel like every question I get a straight answer to reveals ten more at this point," Shepard told her. "Everyone keeps saying there's a way to fix this. Miranda even said we could stop it before it starts."

"Yes, we can," Liara assured him. "It won't be easy, but we've pinned everything we have left on this. You, Chief and Cortana were the last missing pieces to it all. Now that you're here... there's finally some hope again."

"A flicker at least."

Shepard turned to the new voice and saw it was Kat, accompanied by Wrex. His old krogan friend didn't look much different from when he had seen him last, save for his cracked headplate. Kat, however, had seemingly upgraded the Geth arm Tali had given her. It now seemed a bit heftier, more robust, like the arm of a Geth Prime. It probably had more weapons attachments. Her armor was also grafted together from pieces of her old Spartan gear as well as N7 components. Obviously, the war had forced her to improvise and adapt.

"Wrex! Kat!" Shepard greeted with a degree of joy.

"Heh, heh, Shepard," Wrex said, coming up to clasp his old friend's arm. "I kept telling everyone the void couldn't hold you. Looks like you beat death twice."

"This time I didn't die," Shepard joked. "But it's good to see you nevertheless."

Chief approached Kat.

"Miranda said most of the Spartans were gone," he said. "I'm... I'm glad you made it out."

"I'm not exactly sure there's much to be proud of, Chief," she told him. "Given everything that's happened. But if this plan of ours works, it won't matter."

"I'm eager to know what this plan is exactly," Cortana insisted. "Because I'm still unsure. We don't even know how you knew to expect us."

Liara sighed, holding her head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting for answers," she explained, pressing a button on the table. "Perhaps this will start to explain things."

From the center of the table, a small compartment opened up. Inside, rising up from a platform, was the Amplifier. Shepard looked puzzled, he knew Zek had returned it and it played a role in this somehow, but how would this explain anything.

"What do you remember about this relic?" Liara asked.

"It amplifies the core process of any technology it interacts with," Shepard recalled. "Maximizing its full potential beyond its previous capabilities."

"Do you remember the experiment they were performing on the _Normandy_ before you arrived here?" Liara asked cautiously.

"Yes, we were performing it on the Crystal relic we found, but..." he stopped himself, wondering if he should explain about the contradictions. In the end, he decided they needed to know. "I'm not sure. Did we even do the experiment?"

"We did," Kat confirmed. "And you were both there in the Cargo Bay. I wasn't, but all the Spartans knew of what was going on. Remember?"

Chief nodded, but then held his head.

"How come I remember there being a meeting to postpone it though?" He asked.

"Think hard," Liara insisted. "Do you all have conflicting accounts of the day of the experiment?"

Shepard nodded, as did the Master Chief. Cortana looked puzzled for a moment.

"I... I have data entries that seem a little scrambled but-"

"Think back," Liara pressed again. "You took Cortana out of the console. Correct, Chief?"

The Spartan nodded.

"And then the Commander and I tried to pull the plug," Chief added. "But also we didn't. How does that make sense? Which memory is true?"

"They both are," Kat told them. "The experiment resulted in a time loop that trapped the _Normandy_ in a six-hour interval that ended at the time the crystal originally exploded."

"However, Grunt was immune to the effects as was Zek," Liara continued. "Eventually they managed to undo the effects, but you were missing. From what Grunt remembers, you were both trying to pull the plug on the experiment when the Amplifier overcharged the Crystal and the latter exploded. We believe the sudden burst of energy, the same that caused the loop, also propelled you forward in time. No doubt because you were closest to the power surge that resulted in the Crystal's explosion."

So the Crystal controlled time, that explained why they were here. The Amplifier must've increased its output, enabling it to send them forwards in time.

"But why here?" Shepard asked. "Shouldn't we be floating in the middle of space right now if we were sent forward in time? I mean, we didn't reappear in the same place."

"The Crystal interacts with more than just time, it is also connected to space," Kat informed him. "The explosion occurred in the _Normandy's_ cargo bay. From what we understand, it became locked to that specific space, regardless of current position or dimension."

"And the contradicting memories?" Chief asked.

"The first explosion when you tried to pull the plug sent you forward," Liara explained. "But in other loops during the same time, you didn't come into direct contact with the surge of energy. Thus creating a paradox of sorts. When the loops were resolved, it reverted everything back to normal, but you had already travelled through time in the original explosion. The loops were resolved, but that part of the paradox remained. So now your memories are contradicting themselves because they're recalling the loops for you."

Shepard almost couldn't believe any of this, but the more Liara talked, the clearer his thoughts got. He remembered more, not in any great detail, but he remembered some of the loops he had lived. Or hadn't. It was all still very confusing. He tried to think about what this meant for them. Then he recalled something Cortana had said, or a version of her at least, during one of the loops.

"Schrodinger's Cat," He declared.

"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing," Cortana spoke up.

"You did, or didn't, whatever," Shepard said, trying to keep his train of thought straight. "You're saying we're both here in the future but there's also a part of us connected to the past?"

"Exactly," Liara said, her tone growing more excited. "At the very least your ability to recall the loops to a degree suggests you are mentally linked to that moment in time. The paradox is still ongoing, but we can correct it!"

"How do you even know all this?" Cortana asked. "I thought Taq only came back with the Amplifier before dying. That's what Miranda said."

"Taq is dead and we only have the Amplifier, yes," Liara confirmed. "But we eventually cracked her Omni-tool. There was an encoded message on it. We think Taq had meant to give it to us personally, but she died before she could unlock it."

Kat tapped a few buttons on the holotable, revealing a wealth of information on several screens. Notes, reports, analysis readings, everything referring to what Taq had been able to discover about the Crystal and the Amplifier while it was in her possession.

"There's one file, in particular, you need to see," Kat said, bringing up a video on the screen. "It's... it's from Zek. To you."

Shepard slowly approached the table, noticing others had begun to gather around. Including Grunt, Kayap, and a newly arrived Alec Ryder alongside his crew. It looked as if they had been waiting for this moment for a while, he hoped he wouldn't disappoint them. He let the video play. On it, Zek was sitting in a half-demolished room, the one he had aboard the _Fallen Serpent_ from the look of it. He looked terrible, more scars and burns and plucked out quills than ever. He was grimacing at the screen, looking defeated.

" _Shepard, if you're watching this, I'm dead,"_ he began. _"Likely from doing something pretty sinful in as far as the pirate life is concerned, being selfless. At the very least, I hope Taq makes it through that wormhole with your crew. I don't have much time, so I'll be quick. I fucked up, Shepard. Fucked everything up. The whole damn galaxy is gonna burn and it's because I was too damn stupid to see beyond my own fucking beak."_

He slammed a fist on the table before he kept going, sounding like he was about to start sobbing.

" _I took the relics to find the Cutlass on my own, left Haverson and Holland to rot,"_ he continued. _"I never found it. I instead found some new humans, people who acted like they wanted to help me out. They didn't. They had just intercepted Haverson's transmissions to ONI command about the relics and tracked me down. The second they had a chance, they killed half my crew robbing me blind... in... including Retz. The motherfuckers. Lousy naked ape motherfuckers killed him! He told me they didn't smell right and now he's dead because of me!"_

Zek threw a bottle of ichor against a nearby wall and finally broke down, smashing his fist into the table in anguish until Shepard swore he saw it begin to bleed. When Zek finally got a hold of himself, he kept going.

" _They weren't UNSC, or ONI, not even those damn Insurgents, they weren't from here, period."_ Zek claimed. _"They're from your neck of the woods. Your universe. Called themselves... Cerberus."_

Shepard's eyes went wide in shock. Cerberus had gotten through the wormhole? How? When? He wanted to ask anyone for more information, but the video kept playing.

" _I was bitter and angry, didn't heed the warning signs,"_ Zek explained. _"I just wanted my Cutlass. Taq was able to figure out everything though, even with the Crystal stolen. How you got warped through time. How slipspace opened up and swallowed you and the Spartan whole. That you're somehow tied to the_ Normandy _now and you'll eventually reappear there. We know shit on Earth, this one at least, is going bad and we figure your crew is headed there with as many people they can bring with them. That's why we're headed there now, we need to make sure your ship stays intact, that it follows the bastards who stole the Crystal relic back to your universe. Taq says that with it, we can fix this. We can send you and the Spartan back in time, before any of this happened! Before it all went to shit! You can stop this from happening, all of it!"_

Zek looked into the camera desperately, almost pleading directly at Shepard now.

" _I'm encoding this message into Taq's Omni-tool,"_ the Jackal stated. _"Just in case something goes wrong, we've decided to lock it. If the wrong person learns about any of this, like Cerberus or the Covenant, they could use that knowledge to trap you and then we're all fucked. Shepard, Spartan, you need to find the Crystal, find the fuckers who took it. When you're close enough to it with the Amplifier, it should open a tear in slipspace capable of sending you back. If we've figured this right, you should appear back in the_ Normandy's _cargo hold just after me and Grunt resolved the time loop problem, right in front of Tali and everyone. That's Taq's theory anyway, I trust her on this and really, what else we got left to lose?"_

The alarm sounded in the room Zek was in, his face becoming more determined and grim.

" _You two and that AI with ya are our last hope,"_ he declared, grabbing his plasma pistol and standing up. _"Keep me in that fleet, keep those relics in the fleet and you make 'me' from the past get his fucking shit together! Do what you two do best, save the fucking galaxy. Save us all."_

The video cut off there, leaving silence in its wake. Shepard could only lean over the edge of the table. He thought about how Zek had at least hoped to save Taq. How little he knew how bad things would get. About how Cerberus was apparently a part of this. He felt Liara's hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. He had plenty of questions still left unanswered, but after seeing Zek in his state, he only had one at the forefront of his mind.

"Liara, Miranda mentioned Tali was alive," he said. "Where is she?"

Liara looked pensive and unsure.

"Wade..."

"Tali, where is she?" He asked again. "I need to see her."

His thoughts kept going back to Taq, how Zek had wanted to save her out of everyone. He could've picked himself to deliver the message, but he tried to save Taq. With that in mind, all he wanted to do right now was see Tali.

"Where?" He pleased again.

Liara lowered her head sullenly.

"She is alive," she confessed solemnly. "I'll... I'll take you to her."

* * *

Liara remained silent as she led Shepard down into the lower quarters of the base. He asked her about how long it took them to dig all of these. Liara just said "mining lasers" and left it at that. It was the only word she said to him. She remained silent as they passed small groups of survivors taking refuge here. Some were probably soldiers, most were just scared, desperate people. They lived out of shacks made from repurposed scrap, if they were lucky. Most just slept in bed rolls or hastily made bunks. Some were maimed, others hungry, all covered in filth.

Eventually, they arrived at a section of the cavern, a beat-up old sign over its entrance said "clinic." It reminded Shepard of Mordin's own practice on Omega, but even that place had a neon sign. This was just written on sheet metal. The inside was packed with the wounded, dead and dying of the Flood attack. There was moaning, screams of pain, poor souls limped by aimlessly, others were just curled up into balls in corners sobbing.

"We do what we can," Liara said grimly. "Not... not everyone can be saved."

Shepard said nothing. He always knew this would be the case, that when the Reapers came they couldn't save everyone. He knew the toll would be high, even if the Council listened to his every word the casualties would devastating. He thought he had prepared himself for that mentally. Now he knew he had failed in that regard. His stomach sank with every tortured face, every pained groan, every bloody sheet covering another body.

Worst of all was knowing why he was here. Somewhere down here was Tali, the woman he loved. Part of him wanted to hope she had lost a limb or was ill, maybe her suit couldn't be repaired and she was in a bubble room. The reality was far worse though, as they came to a locked door near the back. A door that looked like it had been repurposed from a ship.

Liara paused at the keypad, hesitant to complete her task. Shepard could see the conflict on her face, her hands shook and her eyes grew fearful.

"You... you don't have to see her," she tried to tell him. "Not like this. You don't-"

Without a word, Shepard pressed the button for her. He didn't blame her for wanting to talk him out of this, he could tell she was troubled by it. He was simply taking the decision out of her hands. He wanted to come down here, he wanted to see Tali. None of what happened next was Liara's fault, he'd bear the consequences of this, like he had everything else in his life.

The door led to room, but not one like the others. This was actually comfortable looking. Relatively. It was padded, to a degree. Mostly soft walls, pillows strapped to what looked like proper walls. It was as if they had been torn out of a ship and rebuilt in here. An attempt to make it look less like a cave. Less like a cell.

It was a cell though, as Shepard could see clearly. In a corner of the room, near a small bed, was a purple-clad figure, hunched over a holoscreen of some sort, staring blankly into it. The figure was muttering something at constant length, its hands scratching like mad at the wall near her. The closer he got, the clearer the words became.

"Hungers, always hungers. Hungers for rage. Hungers for despair. Hungers for hate. Always hungry. Never full. Never finished. Never finished. Always more. Never finished."

Shepard already knew who it was. The pattern of her hood, although tattered, torn and ragged, was a dead giveaway.

"Won't stop. Can't stop. Consume us. Consume us all. Consume everything. Can't escape. Never escape. Followed us. Keep following us. Death races for us. A pale horse always chasing. Always chasing."

Shepard could see the screen now and saw it was recording her words for her. It was as if she was speaking an entry in a journal. Dictating it for the computer to record.

"Tali?"

She stopped talking for a moment, her head raised suddenly. She looked around her immediate front at first. Her fingers halted their scratching against the floor, curling up into firsts.

"Father? Father is that you?" She asked hopefully. "Please tell me you're back. It didn't chase you away from me did you? Father?"

"Tali, it's me," Shepard insisted. "It's Wade."

The quarian shook her head, her fist pounding into the floor twice as her other hand clutched at her face.

"No. No. No tricks. No more tricks. No more lies. I can tell when you lie," she growled.

"Tali, it's no trick," Shepard pressed further. "I'm here."

"Stop lying," she growled, still staring at the screen. "You do this when I sleep. I'm not asleep. So stop it! Wade isn't here. Wade is dead."

"I'm not dead," Shepard insisted, moving to try and touch her.

"No, he's dead. He has to be dead. Wade is dead. He has to be dead."

Shepard touched her shoulder and in an instant, she turned violently towards him. She just as quickly darted away, backing into a corner. Her face mask was partially cracked, her suit shoddily repaired with other armored pieces. She was a mess and her eyes were wild and anguished. They stared at him accusingly, viciously, hatefully.

"How dare you?" She screeched. "How dare you use his face?! Monster!"

"Tali! It's me!" Shepard tried to reassure pleadingly.

"Liar! Liar!" Tali pointed. "Wade is dead! He has to be dead! He wouldn't have abandoned me! He wouldn't have left me! Left me like everyone else did! Left me to let you poison my mind! Left me to rot from the inside out! Wade is dead! He's dead! Let him be dead! Keelah, just let him be dead!"

She broke into pained angered sobbing. Shepard fought through his anguish, trying to ascertain what this was. He could only think of one thing.

"Is that it? You think I'm the Chronicler?" He asked fearfully. "He's back? No! He can't be! You're stronger than him! You proved that when you killed him!"

"Stop trying to confuse me!" Tali screamed. "I killed your stupid Voice! I know what you are! I've always known! You're the creature in the swamp! You're the thing from the grave! You took everything from me! Why can't you leave Shepard in peace?! Why can't you just let him be dead!?"

Tali lunged at Shepard suddenly, but he caught her arms in mid-strike. She strained against him for a moment, becoming lucid for a moment or two as she looked at him.

"Wade... why did you leave me?" She asked. "Why did you leave us? Where did you go?"

"It's hard to explain," Shepard told her. "I... I don't know the specifics. But Liara says I can fix this."

"Fix?" Tali laughed aimlessly. "There's no fixing here. There's only decay and rot and what the grave demands. What it wants is us. What it will get. We can't stop it. Nothing can. Too late. It's all too late."

"No, no it's not," Shepard tried to tell her. "Liara, she has a plan to-"

"Liara doesn't know, she can't know, she hasn't seen it!" Tali shouted fearfully. "She hasn't seen its reach! She doesn't know what it's capable of! What it did to all of us!"

"Who Tali?" Shepard asked. "Who is doing this?"

"Him," Tali cried. "It waited for so long. Now it has a new universe. It has a new purpose. Its revenge... is never ending now. It is ever expanding. To every reality. To the infinite. We are specks to it."

"What it?" Shepard pleaded again. "Who is talking to you?"

Tali pulled away suddenly, backing towards a wall.

"If you were Wade, you'd know, you'd see," she growled in disgust. "You'd understand. But you're not him, because Wade is dead. Just like my people. Just like Legion. Wade would've been here, he would've stopped this. He wouldn't leave me behind to be food for him!"

She pulled off one of the pillows from the wall, causing more to fall, revealing that her mumblings had not been limited to the holoscreen. Etched upon the wall were phrases, ramblings, panicked rantings. Shepard read them one by one, trying to discern something from it all.

" **The mind of the tomb watches"**

" **The grave never sleeps!"**

" **Death won't let me rest!"**

" **The dead are awake"**

" **I hear the voice of the Grave"**

" **Too many questions! Make it stop!"**

The words surrounded a central figure, some kind of gaping dark maw with what looked to be little people falling out of its mouth and all around it. Shepard didn't get to look more, as one of the pillows hit him.

"Get out! Get out! Let me sleep! Let me sleep! Stop screaming! Stop it! You're a liar! A liar!"

"Tali!"

"No! Liar! Monster! Get out! Let Wade rest! Leave me alone!"

Shepard backed away from the quarian as she fell to the floor in anguish and started sobbing. He attempted to approach her again, only for her to scream in a rage. He pulled away in horror and heartbreak, racing back to the door and opening it. Even when it closed, Tali's wails could be heard echoing everywhere.

Liara stood in front of him on the other side of the cavern. Her face was filled with regret, her mouth covered by her hand. Tears had been streaming down her cheeks from before, Shepard could see the wet trails across her features. She spoke before he could.

"She... she held out hope the longest," she insisted. "She believed you were alive, always. Until... until the Flood poured through."

"What happened?" He asked, knowing he'd hate the answer.

"Legion... something happened to Legion," Liara confessed. "It... the Geth, they... they attacked the Migrant Fleet, destroyed it utterly."

Shepard felt the color drain from his face.

"What?"

"The quarians were in the thick of it when the Covenant began their attacks," Liara explained. "They thought the Council would let them retake the homeworld if they helped defend the Galaxy for them. Tali convinced them to do it, she was key in doing it. As much as they wanted to reclaim Rannoch, all the Admirals saw an opportunity in attacking the Covenant. Capturing an Assault Carrier or two would've made fighting the Geth easier. Legion had left to recruit the Geth to our side, that... that was the last we saw of him until Earth."

"The attack on Harbinger," Shepard recalled, still in shock.

"The Geth came around the same time the Flood attacked," Liara continued. "They focused on the Migrant Fleet specifically. They... they destroyed it, completely. Left... left the escape pods for the Flood to take. Tali managed to escape... she was holding Legion's head when we found her escape pod."

Shepard couldn't believe it. After everything they had went through, all they had done together, their hopes of reuniting their people, that was how it ended?

"She killed him?" He asked in disbelief.

"She claims he was already dead before she killed him," Liara stated, unable to look at him in the eye. "That... something claimed the Geth, turned them all. She... she thinks it was this voice she keeps hearing. Near as we can tell she thinks it's the Flood, whatever intelligence is controlling them. She's so far gone though we can't be sure. Losing her people, you, being forced to kill Legion, watching all her friends die... it broke her Shepard."

She turned away from him completely now, looking ashamed and disgusted with herself.

"The closer she is to the Flood the worse she gets," she explained, frantic with pain and self-loathing. "It's... it's how we knew the Flood were going to attack us actually. I... I tried to make her comfortable here, keep her from hurting herself. I've tried to help best I can but..."

She couldn't continue, slamming her fist into the wall and letting the tears flow once more.

"I'm sorry, Wade!" She shouted through her sobs. "I tried everything! I did everything I could! This was the best I could do for her! It wasn't enough! I wasn't enough! Everything is screwed up and it's my fault! I failed you! I'm sorry!"

Shepard rushed over to her, hugging her close. It caught the asari off guard, but she eventually hugged him back. He was barely holding in his own tears himself, failing even now. He inevitably couldn't stop his grief from taking hold, but he could keep Liara from blaming herself for this.

"You did what you could," he assured her. "You did everything you could."

He should've been here. He should've been bearing this burden with her and everyone else. As lost as she was, Tali was right. He would never abandon his crew, his friends, his family, to face this alone. Even if he hadn't done so intentionally though, he still had. Well, he was here now. He would not let them down again.

"How do we fix this?" He asked, his voice resolute and determined. "How do we stop this?"

Liara answered as directly and simply as possible.

"The Amplifier."

* * *

When they got back upstairs, everyone from the _Tempest_ along with the other survivors had gathered around the holotable. Shepard stood beside Chief as Liara took position at the head of the table, flanked by Wrex and Kayap. The Amplifier still sat in the middle, all eyes looking at either it or Liara.

"Taq theorized the Amplifier's processor wants to resolve the paradox and restore its full functions," Liara explained. "It's still connected to the Crystal, so a lot of its power is being syphoned off to it. Taq believed that if it was connected to a significantly long ranged transmitter, it could more easily seek out the Crystal. What was missing was you three, you're part of the paradox as well. In order to trace the exact coordinates of the Crystal, we needed you to be here, so you could complete the circuit in a sense."

"So what?" Cortana asked. "You want Chief and Shepard to touch it and that will show where we need to go?"

"I connected it to what's left of my ShadowNet System," Liara explained. "It's still spread out across the Galaxy and able to feed us information about what is going on. The Amplifier has its means of showing us where to go, we just need you to feed it more information to make it lock on a location. Which you contain, since all of you are part of the anomaly that created the rip in time. A fact confirmed when it began reacting like crazy today, when you arrived here in our time. It was detecting your emergence through the rip, the missing piece of the paradox's resolution. The Crystal is all that remains."

"Right now our best guess is it's somewhere in the Traverse," Wrex added. "It glows stronger there, but it's too weak a signal as is."

"So we find where the Crystal is and then what?" Shepard asked.

"From what Zek and Taq seemed to believe, the Crystal will open a portal to the start of the paradox once you're close enough to it," Liara informed him. "You all go through and this entire nightmare never happens."

Shepard looked at the Amplifier, his gaze troubled at the implications of the plan.

"You want me to leave you again?" He asked, concern in his voice. "After all this?"

"Shepard..."

"Liara, I can't just leave you all again," Shepard insisted. "After everything that's happened, all that I've seen, how can I? Maybe we can use the Crystal, as a weapon or something. Use it against the Reapers and the Flood."

"We've been trying to do that with the Amplifier," Alec claimed. "Nothing we plugged it into was enough. The Crystal is syphoning off too much of its power, it's a miracle it has been able to boost the ShadowNet enough as it has."

That wasn't a good enough excuse for him, he couldn't just abandon them all again. They were his crew, they had needed him and he wasn't here. He had to do more than just get sucked back into the past. He owed them that much.

"What if this doesn't change anything?" He asked. "What if I go back in time but this future remains?"

"There is a theory concerning time that discusses that very possibility," Cortana noted. "From our perspective, the past might be altered, but this future could still remain in some form. Locked in a sort of temporal reality state."

"Taq didn't believe so," Liara stated. "From everything I've looked over concerning her notes, her studies, this current state of affairs is the result of a rip in the time-space continuum. It only exists because you were pulled out of time itself and thrust into this future. Only by sending you back to the past can we fix it."

"But what if you're wrong?" Shepard asked. "We'd be leaving you all here to die. Isn't there anything else I can do? Before you send me back? I can help you win THIS war. Save THIS future. I can help you make this right."

Kayap suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"No!" He shouted. "No! None of this is right! None of it!"

"Kay," Liara said, trying to calm him. "Please, this-"

"No! No he doesn't understand! They need to understand!" Kayap screamed. "Too many have died for this! Too many friends! Nel on Palaven! Saya on Sur'Kesh! Vik with the Migrant Fleet! All dead trying to win this war! All of them gone! Lost! Countless more Unggoy are dead, slaves! That Mech Suit? They don't have a choice to go in it like I do! The Covenant strap them inside! Force them! Sometimes fuse them to it! My people are enslaved! My friends are dead! My planet for all I know has been consumed by the Flood! And you want to save this world now? No!"

Liara placed a hand on his arm, trying to calm him. The unggoy finally eased up.

"I don't want to live in this time," he said solemnly. "If there is a chance to stop this, all of this. We need to take it. You need to take it. There's no time to argue about it. The only hope we have is the past, not now, the past."

Shepard saw Chief's head lower slightly from Kayap's words. His contemplation was obvious enough, he was thinking of his Spartans. What else would be on his mind? They were all gone in this future. Why would he want to live in this time either? However, Cortana just seemed confused by the unggoy's statements.

"But if we could go back at any time, then shouldn't we at least try to give you a fighting chance?" Cortana asked curiously.

Liara shook her head.

"No, Kayap is right," Liara warned. "We don't have time to debate this."

As she said that, Shepard felt something stinging in his head. So did Chief, holding onto his temple slightly. Cortana herself went fuzzy and weird for a moment, she too was holding her head all of a sudden.

"The hell was that?" She asked when it was over. "My... my memory banks just went haywire!"

Shepard knew what it was. His thoughts were filled with a series of images. Reports from Tali about progress concerning Grunt and Zek. Meetings with Haverson, Holland and Whitcomb that seemed to repeat.

"More contradicting memories?" Liara asked.

Shepard nodded.

"That's what we mean," she explained. "Time isn't set, the paradox has ripped a hole in it. The fabric of reality itself. The longer you stay here, the more you'll remember parts of the looping incident happening in the past. When that stops, you'll miss your window to go back. You won't end up at the same point in time you left. We don't know where you'll end up."

"So we either head back now or maybe not at all," Chief concluded.

"I'm sorry, Wade," Liara confessed to her old Commander. "But for this to work, you need to go before the paradox is partially resolved in the past. It's the only way. Otherwise, this future will be set in stone. It will be a singular solid loop of time, from your disappearance until today."

Shepard looked at Chief and Cortana, to see what their opinion was. He knew before they even spoke it though. He could just tell by the way they looked.

"We might not know all the specifics of how this works completely," Cortana said, her logic tinged with concern. "But the facts are clear Commander. If we don't go back, and soon, this will be how things turn out no matter what. If there is even a chance that we can change this... we should take it."

"Both our Earths are gone in this timeline," Chief said next, stoic and practical as ever. "They've sacrificed enough already to give us this chance. We now have vital intelligence about possible future events and way to bring it back to our time because of this. Sir, I know this can't be easy, but this seems like our only real option."

Shepard couldn't deny that. He knew as much, but he hated the idea of abandoning everyone again. Even if it meant none of this would even happen, to begin with, leaving his team behind would never sit right with him. No matter the context, they were his family. However, because of that same reason, he couldn't risk sacrificing everything they had worked for up to this moment. They had put themselves at risk to give him and Chief this chance to go back, to set everything right.

John was right, what other option did they have?

"Give me the Amplifier," he requested.

Liara pressed a button on her console and the Amplifier moved across the table, as the section it rolled towards them on a conveyor belt-like system. Shepard took a breath before placing his hand on the Amplifier. Chief quickly did the same. Within moments, the holoscreen came alive with a flash of colors, data pouring into it like crazy. Before long a map of the galaxy appeared and slowly began to shrink in size, zooming in on the Traverse, then a cluster, then a system and finally a planet. By the time it was over, most everyone was staring up at it in awe.

"Talk about a light show," Peebee said.

"Where's it leading us?" Wrex asked.

Liara gaze fell onto the planet singled out by the Amplifier's lock on.

"Of course, Eden Prime," she reasoned. "Where Cerberus set up their own little nation-state shortly after the Covenant invaded."

Eden Prime, where it all started. Where Shepard received the Prothean beacon's message. Where he first saw Sovereign. He had heard of cyclical history before, but this was something else.

"I knew we should've checked there sooner," Drack growled.

"It was one of many possible sites and for all, we knew they had it in an underground bunker we didn't know about," Liara stated. "It doesn't matter now. We've been saving up our strength for this, an all or nothing final assault."

"Where are we headed?" Shepard asked.

Liara looked over the precise coordinates, properly sifting through the data. An image of a large, towering structure appeared on the hologram, looming over the landscape like a megalithic obelisk.

"Their main military Command and Control complex," she said. "Thanatos Spire, built over the colony Sovereign attacked years ago. One way or another, it ends there."

She looked to the assembled group of people around the table.

"Pack everything you can, get the refugees to emergency shuttles and launch them," she ordered. "Ryder, prep the _Tempest_. We need to leave, now."

"Now?" Shepard asked. "I know we're in a rush but shouldn't we come up with an attack plan?"

"We can figure it out on the way there," Liara insisted. "Shepard, it's no coincidence the Flood attacked so soon after the Amplifier went off. It's not really Forerunner as I recall. It has some sort of connection to the Flood and what they used to be."

Shepard nodded, knowing all too well what she meant.

"The Precursors," he confirmed.

"They must've felt the energy resonance through the depths of space and sent everything at us to retrieve it," Liara exclaimed. "I'm not taking a chance that they didn't just learn where the Crystal is too. We need to go now before they beat us to Eden Prime."

Alec Ryder took Shepard by the shoulder.

"Sarah will take you to the armory, grab whatever you can," he said, taking charge of the moment. "I'll warm up the _Tempest_ and get it ready for you."

He looked to the room at large, already bustling with activity and shouted commandingly at them all.

"Let's move it, people! We need to be out of here in less than thirty!"

* * *

AN: Welcome to the future, same as it never was. You probably have questions, I intend to answer them on my blog. The post should be up by now. I'm sorry this has ended up being another cliffhanger. But the story went long. I meant to upload this much later, but I'm going on vacation soon and will not be able to keep up with my writing schedule as much as I should soon. I've gotten a fair bit of the next chapter I'm working on done though, so I decided it was okay to post this installment next. I hope this tides you over for a while and that you enjoy this little peek into everything that can go wrong going wrong. This was a hell of a thing to write to be sure, so I hope you're enjoying it so far.

Next chapter will finish off the time travel shenanigans, but expect to cry. Some people are about to not feel so good. Sorry in advance. Remember to review, visit the tv tropes page, etc.


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